Valentina Buliga is stalking horse, analyst thinks

Victor Bodiu has a chance to reach mayoral run-off in Chisinau in the upcoming local elections only if Lib-Dem leader Vlad Filat will accompany him personally to every electoral meeting, thinks political analyst Bogdan Tirdea. Commenting on the three candidates fielded for the Chisinau mayoral race by the governing trio, Tirdea said: “Victor Bodiu's renown and popularity is extremely low. He doesn't possess charisma and has quite low chances of boosting his popularity. Polls have already shown that most traditional Liberal-Democratic voters are willing to vote for the PLDM's list for the municipal council, but when it comes to the mayoral race, most are inclined to vote for Dorin Chirtoaca. Picking Victor Bodiu for the mayoral race was not such a brilliant idea”. Speaking about the Democratic candidate, Valentina Buliga, Tirdea said that her nomination seemed to be part of some scheme. “I'm inclined to believe that Mr. Chirtoaca of the Liberal Party is the choice of the Democratic Party, too, because he enjoys the support of a potent businessman, and I mean Vladimir Plahotniuc. Plahotniuc seems to have some common interests with Mihai Ghimpu”, said Bogdan Tirdea. Tirdea thinks that Valentina Buliga has very low odds of winning the race, considering that she heads the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, which has drawn some criticism lately for a number of unpopular reforms. So, according to Tirdea, this makes Valentina Buliga a stalking horse used by the Democrats to steal votes from Victor Bodiu and thus help Mayor Chirtoaca head into reelection.