Moldovan Democratic Party refuses to participate in referendum on dismissing Chisinau mayor

12:55 | 03.10.2017 Category: Political

Chisinau, 3 October /MOLDPRES/ - The Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) has refused to participate in a local referendum on dismissing Chisinau general mayor Dorin Chirtoaca from office. The spokesman for PDM, Vitalie Gamurari, made statements to this effect following a weekly meeting of the Democrats today.

Gamurari noted that the initiative to dismiss the Chisinau mayor was not only one of the Party of Socialists, but also of President Igor Dodon. “The decision has nothing in common with the wishes of the Chisinau residents and the real problems of the city. The initiative is strictly political, electoral and in the interest of a single party; therefore, such a decision was taken,” Gamurari specified.

The Liberal Party and the National Unity Party, whose honorary leader is the former Romanian president, Traian Basescu, have early informed that they would boycott the local referendum.

The referendum on dismissing the Chisinau mayor will take place on 19 November. The electoral period is to start 45 days before this day. The Central Electoral Commission has earlier ruled to earmark 8.9 million lei to organize the plebiscite.

Over 160,000 votes are necessary for the Chisinau mayor to be dismissed from his position. Also, for the referendum to be validated, not less than one third of those over 647,000 voters registered on lists should participate in it.

Dorin Chirtoaca has been leading Chisinau since 2007, and presently exercises his third mandate. The Chisinau mayor was detained in late last May by anticorruption prosecutors and officers, being suspected of influence peddling in a file on paid parkings. At the same time, in late August 2017, anticorruption prosecutors said that the mayor was prosecuted in a new criminal case, in which he is suspected of abuse of office in a file on the change of the way authorizations on providing dwellings in Chisinau is carried out.

(Reporter A. Ciobanu, editor A. Raileanu)

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