PL's electoral presentation thwarted

The Liberal Party (PL), which was to present its program and electoral team for the June 5 elections in the evening of April 20, changed its plans after the Chisinau district electoral council postponed its meeting, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Council was to register the candidates at 5pm on Wednesday, April 20. Ten minutes before the announced hour, the electoral body decided to put off the meeting until April 21. The Liberal Party's team presumed it was done by order. “The PL will presents its platform and team when the Council registers our candidates. It is not clear why the Chisinau district electoral council modified its program so quickly. Such things are usually done by political order,” said the party's vice president and mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca. Asked by the press to provide explanations, the Council's head Iulian Balan said a number of technical problems appeared and the registration of candidates was postponed as only 90% of the applications were examined. “We do not have enough personnel. According to Article 44 of the Election Code, the candidates are registered within seven days. We did not break the law. I think we will manage to do everything we planned until Thursday, by 5pm,” said Iulian Balan. On Wednesday, the PDM submitted the list of candidates for seats on the Chisinau Municipal Council, while the Democrats' candidate Valentina Buliga, the candidate of Moldova's Patriots Party Maia Laguta and independent candidate Serghei Dubalari filed the documents to be registered as contenders for the mayoralty of the capital city.