​CEC DEREGISTERS ANDREI NASTASE FROM LIST OF CANDIDATES

At its working meeting held on Friday, the Moldovan Central Election Commission excluded DA Platform leader Andrei Nastase from the list of presidential candidates, thus meeting his official application on deregistering him.

Last week, the DA Platform decided to support a common candidate of Right-wing opposition forces for the presidential post – Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) Chairperson Maia Sandu.

“I have decided to withdraw in favor of the common candidate of all anti-oligarchic and pro-European forces. I am convinced this is the only correct decision for overthrowing the incumbent corruption regime in Moldova”, stated Andrei Nastase.

On Friday, the Central Election Commission also approved Maia Sandu’s new electoral symbol: instead of the previous one featuring the PAS emblem, the new one will feature a square with an inscription “DA MAIA SANDU” inside. This has been done inter alia to avoid a mess during voting: earlier, Maia Sandu voiced discontent that independent candidate Maya Laguta chose for her emblem the square with the word “MAIA” inside.

The last day when candidates may apply for withdrawing from the election race is Saturday, October 22. It is expected that on that day, the Chisinau Appeals Court will consider the CEC’s inquiry on deregistering the candidate of the Ravnopraviye [Equal Rights] Socio-Political Movement, Inna Popenco. The CEC has agreed with the evidences presented by other candidates that Popenco bribed voters by issuing entry cards to ‘social shops’ for pensioners.

Now, without Andrei Nastase, and if Inna Popenco is excluded from the campaign, the ballot-papers for the October 30 presidential election will contain 10 candidates.