RENATO USATII BELIEVES DA LEADER WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO STAND FOR PARLIAMENT

Andrei Nastase, Chairman of the political party called Platform "Demnitate si Adevar" [DA, "Dignity and Justice"], has been sentenced by the Moldovan authorities to isolation from the forthcoming parliamentary election and may be even to non-participation in the next summer's Chisinau mayoral election, presumes Renato Usatii, leader of the strongly opposition Partidul Nostru [Our Party, OP] and the Mayor of Balti until February 2018, who has been hiding in Moscow since August 2016 from what he calls "the Plahotniuc justice in Moldova".

Usatii said over the TV8 channel on Monday night that the DA Platform will be permitted to take part in the elections, but its leader - will not.

"I have already warned Andrei about this. The ruling regime will find a pretext - any pretext. For instance, they may say that Nastase stated something improper on the voting day, or behaved against the law. There is a list of politicians who will not be permitted to take part in the elections. For instance, there are Grigore Petrenco on the list [leader of Our Home is Moldova (OHM) party] and ex-parliamentarian Alexander Petkov. But Maya Sandu [Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) Chairperson] will be kindly permitted to run for parliament", said Renato Usatii.

Touching on a possible invalidation of the forthcoming parliamentary election results, Renato Usatii said that the ruling clique has a lot of variants and possibilities for this.

"May I remind you how at the previous parliamentary elections of November 2014 Central Election Commission Chairman Iurie Ciocan switched off for several hours the much-advertized electronic system "Elections". Now the regime will invent something else. For instance, the ceiling will collapse in the CEC headquarters, or power supply will be cut off. So, necessary methods to upset the voting will be easily found. In addition, Moldovan judges solve all questions the way coordinator Vlad Plahotniuc tells them", said the opposition politician.

Renato Usatii said that according to the information available with him, Plahotniuc has compelled the main suspect of the bank fraud worth a billion U.S. dollars, Ilan Shor, to bring minimum 15 representatives of the Ilan Shor Party to the new Parliament so as to thus have not less than 70 mandates in the new forum [of 101] in "the Plahotniuc's team" - the Democratic Party, the Party of Socialists and the Ilan Shor Party.

"This configuration has to be put into life because Plahotniuc cannot count on the Party of Socialists only: it is not able to poll more than 35 mandates because Dodon is losing his positions - seriously losing. Presently, his political rehabilitation is impossible even by using grandioso photo sessions, or prayers, or even his canonization", believes Renato Usatii. In his opinion, the opposition may choose 2 ways in the election situation.

"First: a general boycott of the elections is necessary. All opposition parties refuse to take part in the elections - the DA Platform, Our Party, Communist Party, PAS and some other. That should be their consolidated position. And second: a correct participation in the elections. One example: I think that there is no point for the parties of Nastase and Sandu [DA and PAS] to participate with their candidates in elections in the north and south of Moldova. In these regions, their candidates will simply fail. These two parties should bargain with other opposition parties, even Left-wing ones, whose candidates would win. The chief objective is not to let the DP-PSRM tandem to bring their candidates to parliament. It is possible to attract renowned personalities as opposition candidates even though they don't belong to any party, such as e.g. analysts Alexei Tulbure, Igor Botan or Andrei Popov. The chief objective is to have as many honest people in the Parliament as only possib le", believes Renato Usatii.