{"id":445559,"date":"2018-05-27T19:41:50","date_gmt":"2018-05-27T19:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=445559"},"modified":"2018-05-27T19:41:50","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T19:41:50","slug":"weekly-roundup-elections-chisinau-go-runoff-care-jora-de-mijloc-progress-reforms-state-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/weekly-roundup-elections-chisinau-go-runoff-care-jora-de-mijloc-progress-reforms-state-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Roundup: Elections in Chi\u0219in\u0103u go for runoff, why care about Jora de Mijloc, when “progress” on reforms is state secret"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Tired of Privacy Policy emails this week? Relax and enjoy a more interesting compilation of news from Moldova.<\/p>\n

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Kiril is coming:\u00a0<\/strong>Moldova President Igor Dodon has confirmed that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church will visit Chisinau on September 14-16 for the World Congress of Families, reports Balkan Insight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Chi\u0219in\u0103u elections, 1st round<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong>The candidate of the Party of Socialists, Ion Ceban, won 40,97% of the votes, while Andrei N\u0103stase of the Platform \u201cDignity and Truth\u201d got 32,12% of the votes. Ceban and N\u0103stase will thus compete in the second round of the elections in two weeks. Silvia Radu, the so-called “independent candidate”, got some 17%. The other candidates? Mmmm, see the results for yourself:<\/p>\n

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The voter turnout in Chi\u0219in\u0103u was 35,53%.<\/p>\n

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Renato Usat\u00eei, Reloaded<\/a>:\u00a0<\/strong>Nicolai Grigori\u0219in, the candidate of \u201cOur Party\u201d, won 61,74% of the total votes. Grigori\u0219in thus won the B\u0103l\u021bi elections in the first round. He belongs to the party of the resigned-exiled B\u0103l\u021bi mayor, Renato Usat\u00eei.<\/p>\n

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Renato Usat\u00eei,\u00a0announced his resignation<\/a>\u00a0from the position of mayor of B\u0103l\u021bi municipality.\u00a0Usat\u00eei is accused of an attempt of assassination against the Russian banker German Gorbuntsov, holder of Moldovan citizenship. A subject of an international warrant, he was not in Moldova for more than a year, and meetings of the City Hall officials were often conducted with Usat\u00eei\u2019s presence via Skype. Usat\u00eei is reportedly residing in his house in Moscow, Russia.<\/p>\n

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Why should we care about Jora de Mijloc:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cShor Party\u201d Vice-President Marina Tauber won<\/a> 61,07% of the votes in the mayoral elections of the Orhei district village. Her opponent, Democrat Lucia Terenti got 38,05%.<\/p>\n

The small village got more attention not because the Orhei-based Tauber suddenly came to Jora de Mijloc to win the mayor seat, but (also) because of the reported frauds and irregularities on the election day. Quoted by\u00a0TV8<\/a>, Promo-LEX found more than 10 violations in Jora de Mijloc: organized transport of voters, the presence of unauthorized persons next to the polling stations, the disconnection of security cameras in the center, taking photos of the voting ballot, etc. There were several reported cases of persons registering and taking photos of voters next to the polling station.<\/p>\n

Tauber is also known to have a strong connection with Ilan Shor, the architect of the “Billion Theft”, now mayor of Orhei and \u0218or Party leader (yes, it’s his name).<\/p>\n

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In other villages, Democrat mayors won with an overwhelming majority of votes:<\/p>\n