CHISINAU COURT RECOGNIZES MAYORAL ELECTION RESULTS AS VOID

The Chisinau Court has declared as invalid the results of the Chisinau mayoral election namely its second round held on June 3. The Court passed the decision late on Tuesday night.

“Due to the legal violations that influenced on the election outcome at the second round of voting held on June 3, the Chisinau Court rules to recognize the voting results as null and void. The Central Election Commission and the Chisinau Constituency Election Council shall be duly informed about this decision. The Court decision may be challenged [with a higher-level judiciary instance] within one day from the decision passing moment”, the Court decision said.

As was already reported by Infotag, in the second round of the Chisinau mayoral election Andrei Nastase, Chairman of the political party called Platform “Demnitate si Adevar” [DA, “Dignity and Justice”] polled 52.57% and thus won a victory over Party of Socialists candidate Ion Ceban, who has officially recognized his defeat and congratulated Nastase yet at vote-count night.

However, a few days later the Socialists challenged the election result with the Court. They claimed that in the course of the election campaign, Nastase was canvassed for by a number of prominent European and Romanian politicians, whereas such canvassing by foreigners is prohibited by law. Besides this, the Court recognized as “canvassing on the election day” the candidates’ appeals to voters to take an active part in the voting.

The Court began its session on Tuesday at an unusually late time – at 4.30 pm, and held it behind closed doors, so journalists could not be present at it. The Court decision may be challenged with the Chisinau Appeals Court [second-instance].

During the Court session that lasted 6 hours, several dozen Nastase supporters were protesting under courthouse walls against the dragging out of the election recognition case.

Upon his coming out of the building, Andrei Nastase stated to the protesters: “We know whom we deal with here. They don’t care about the citizens’ vote. I wanted the session to be held in an open regime, but the judges did not permit the press to be present, I don’t know why. They were marking time until late at night, fearing that problems might arise. They announced their vile judgment under cover of night. The Vlad Plahotniuc judiciary has done its job. They have used the Socialists in their games. The linkage of President Dodon and oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc has become more than evident. For the Mafia, the citizens’ voice does not matter. This is an unfounded decision”.

He called on his supporters to not yield to possible provocations and to go home: “They want to provoke us to radical actions, but we shall be acting within the frames of law. We will challenge this decision and will get prepared to protesting. And now I am calling on you to go home. There is much police here who may stage provocations. So, let’s disperse but start preparing for massive protesting. This is our legitimate right”.

If higher judicial instances (CAC, Supreme Court of Justice) leave the first-instance Court’s judgment unchanged, there shall be no new election in the capital city because according to the law an early local election may not be held within shorter than one year to an ordinary local election. In this particular case, such election must take place in June 2019. So, until then, the city must be governed by Ruslan Codreanu, the incumbent Acting Mayor.