Academician Gheorghe Duca considers that attempts are made to exclude him from the contest for filling the post of president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova (ASM). He accuses his opponents of carrying out a camping aimed at denigrating him.

On April 17, the scientific community is to elect the new president of the ASM. In a news conference at IPN, Gheorghe Duca, who had held this post during the last ten years (2004-2014), said that he applied again for this position not for personal ambitions, but because he was fielded by four scientific sections of the Academy. Afterward, he analyzed his capacities, prepared a work program and, after discussing it with his colleagues, agreed to run for the presidency of the ASM. He asked Parliament to examine the situation from legal viewpoint and the legislative body approved his candidacy.

“When entering the race, the first thing I did was to detach myself from the administrative activity. I’m the only candidate who did this. Regretfully, the Academy members’ call for an honest, correct and tolerant campaign with constructive proposals was ignored,” said the academician.

Gheorghe Duca noted that he is accused of centralizing the power while he headed the ASM, but these accusations are made by his rivals. He started to discuss the necessity of reforming the management of science in 2009.

Gheorghe Duca also commented on the accusations of plagiarism made by Doctor of Sciences Veaceslav Afanasiev, who is the former Deputy Minister of Economy. He said that these accusations are groundless and represent an attempt to make him withdraw from the competition.

He added that the press reports saying that he has undeclared property also form part of this denigration campaign. In this connection, he pledged to make public his income and property statement again, though he already presented it, as the law requires.