Pro-European Candidate Wins Chisinau Mayoral Race

Dignity and Truth Platform, PPDA, candidate Andrei Nastase won the second round of the local elections for Chisinau's City Hall on Sunday, beating pro-Russian Socialist Party candidate Ion Ceban.

The result was relatively tight, with Nastase getting 52.57 per cent - a total of 129,432 votes - while his opponent Ceban got 47.43 per cent or 116,788 votes, according to official results from the Central Election Commission, CEC.

The turnout was 39.12 per cent, the CEC said.

"Thank you for joining the pro-European and anti-oligarchic forces of the PPDA, PAS [Action and Solidarity Party] and PLDM [Liberal Democratic Party in Moldova].

"We had the common goal of winning ahead of a 'binary' force that was working together," Nastase told a press conference the official results were announced, referring to allegations that the pro-Russian Socialist Party collaborated with the pro-European ruling Democratic Party.

"We have won an important victory for Chisinau, but also for Moldova," Nastase added.

He also thanked the National Liberal Party in Romania and European People's Party for their support in the elections.

"We have established a solid alliance for future parliamentary elections in which we are all obliged to make every effort to win to remove this country from [political] captivity," he added.

Ceban admitted defeat and said that "today's results show that the vote was more political and geopolitical, and Chisinau still has real problems to be solved".

Immediately after the announcement of the official results, political analyst Igor Munteanu said that "the European electorate in the capital of our troubled Moldova did not betray its instincts and identity".

Parliamentary elections are expected in Moldova in...