MOLDOVAN SOCIETY LONGING FOR FREE AND FAIR ELECTION – POLITICAL SCIENTIST

The Moldovan society is eagerly expecting that the first election after the dismissal of the Mafioso regime of Vlad Plahotniuc will be genuinely free and fair and will show what the Democratic Party is really worth, if only it still exists, believes Alexei Tulbure, Moldova’s former Permanent Representative at the Council of Europe and the United Nations, incumbent Director of the Institute of Oral History of Moldova.

He wrote in the Facebook on Monday that the October 20 local election campaign, like the previous one of June 2018, is going on in the conditions of an almost complete absence of local autonomy and democracy.

“Regional and local public governance bodies are deprived of whatever rights, and if nothing is changed in this sphere, if no decentralization measures are undertaken, then the forthcoming October 20 election will bring no changes to current situation in our villages and towns”, wrote the expert.

Alexei Tulbure presumes that locality mayors and municipal councilors can of course change the colors of their party flags. But when ties in Chisinau are the most important of all, old work principles will remain as before.

“A candidate for Soroca Town Mayor has promised in a party newspaper that in case of his victory, the town will receive 7 million lei from the Moldovan State Budget before the end of this year. What is it? New approaches? Chisinau is remaining the chief source and inspirer of changes, but with all this there remains an absolutely distorted system of relations between the Center and provincial localities. In a word, if provincial public administrations do not receive real plenary powers and more autonomy in solving their local current problems, the forthcoming local elections will not bring changes for the better”, warned the political scientist.