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Moscow, Nov 5 (EFE).- Local elections in Moldova, considered the barometer of President Maia Sandu’s pro-European course, began today with the opening of almost 2,000 polling stations to elect mayors and members of regional, urban and rural councils for the next four years.
“At 7:00 (05:00 GMT) all 1,958 polling stations in the country opened,” the president of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Moldova, Angela Karaman, reported in a press conference.
Polling stations will close their doors at 9:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT)
There are 57,396 candidates running for mayor and councilor positions in the elections, representing 35 political parties and an electoral bloc, as well as 1,174 independent candidates, according to the CEC.
A total of 2,758,810 Moldovans will be able to vote today to elect nearly 900 mayors and more than 11,000 deputies of local councils.
Mayoral candidates must obtain more than 50% of the votes to be elected, otherwise second rounds of elections will be held, while deputies will be elected by simple majority.
These elections are being held amid complaints of Russian interference, media closures and criticism from the pro-Russian opposition.
According to surveys cited by the Agora.md portal, the favorite parties are the ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) of Sandu (22.6%), and the also pro-European National Alternative Movement (22.4%), followed by the of the Socialists of former pro-Russian president Igor Dodon (9.4%).
The big absentee in these elections is the pro-Russian Shor party, recently banned by Chisinau, and which is trying to re-establish itself in the “Chance” formation, to which the Moldovan authorities link the figure of Ilon Shor, sentenced by the Moldovan Justice to 15 years of jail.
As part of the fight between the pro-European government and the pro-Russian opposition ahead of the elections, the authorities banned six television channels associated with Shor on Monday, in addition to blocking another 31 internet portals, most of them controlled directly from Russia.
In addition, on Friday the pro-Russian Chance party, founded after the dissolution of Shor, was also excluded from the electoral lists for “reasons of national security in the context of the hybrid war waged by Russia in Moldova.”
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