DODON AND PLAHOTNIUC WERE NOT TOGETHER AT POST-ELECTION NIGHT – PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SECRETARY

Ion Ceban, the Political Adviser to the Head of State and Presidential Press Secretary, has refuted assertions that President Igor Dodon and Democratic Party leader Vlad Plahotniuc were allegedly together at the post-election night last November 13, when presidential election results were announced.

On his Facebook page, Ceban criticized political scientist Igor Munteanu who stated on the local television on Thursday that Dodon and Plahotniuc were in one big room on that night, listening to the vote-count reports coming from the Central Election Commission.

“Instead of informing the public, Mr. Muntean misinforms citizens and even speaks nonsense. What an ugly gesture made by the man who seeks to be reputed as a serious political analyst”, wrote Ion Ceban.

Speaking on television last night, Moldova’s former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States, Canada and Mexico Igor Munteanu stated that Vlad Plahotniuc and Igor Dodon were together at the moment of election results announcement at the November 13/14 night.

“Mr. Dodon then had a telephone conversation with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, who put forward certain conditions to him as a precondition for Dodon’s visiting Ukraine. Those conditions followed because in his presidential campaign candidate Dodon was acting and speaking from positions that were totally unacceptable for Ukraine. The most interesting thing was that it was exactly Vlad Plahotniuc who passed his mobile phone over to Dodon to let him talk with Poroshenko waiting on line”, said Igor Munteanu. The local press wrote repeatedly that Plahotniuc and Poroshenko used to be active business partners in previous years and that they are remaining good friends until now.

According to Munteanu, certain accords were reached that night “so that to create a public illusion that the political scene has been divided and that the Democratic Party is allegedly an opponent to Dodon’s Party of Socialists”.

“In the reality, however, there exists a certain agreed-on coordination between the Democrats and Socialists. They simultaneously hate and love each other, and at some moments one can see that they coordinate their interaction very well”, said the analyst.

Igor Munteanu did not say what conditions Poroshenko put forth to Dodon, and why the Moldovan President has not visited Ukraine until now.