CAC RECOGNIZES AS VALID ANDREI NASTASE’S ELECTION AS CHISINAU MAYOR IN 2018

The Chisinau Appeals Court [second-instance] has recognized as valid the result of the June 2018 snap election of Chisinau Mayor that was won by DA Platform party leader Andrei Nastase.

Having cancelled the first-instance court’s decision on annulling the results of both rounds of the mayoral election held on May 20 and June 3, 2018, the Chisinau Appeals Court has also confirmed that Andrei Nastase then became Mayor of Chisinau. This CAC decision may be yet challenged with a higher instance – the Supreme Court of Justice.

As was already reported by Infotag, at the early Chisinau mayoral election of 2018, Andrei Nastase polled in the second round 52.7% votes, while his Socialist rival Ion Ceban – 47.43%. However, on June 19, 2018 the first-instance court invalidated the election results thus meeting the Socialists’ complaint, who claimed that during the election campaign, propaganda for Nastase was run by a number of renowned European and Romanian politicians, whereas such canvassing by foreigners is prohibited by the law. Besides that, the court recognized as “canvassing on election day” the candidates’ [including Nastase’s] appeals to voters not to sit at home but go to the polls.

That scandalous invalidation of the election results in Chisinau was resolutely condemned not only by the DA Platform but also by many human-right organizations and Western international institutions.