Pro-Europeans Take on Moldova's 'Old Guard' in Election

All the main political parties in Moldova on Wednesday or Thursday submitted their lists of candidates to the Central Electoral Commission for the parliamentary elections due on February 24.

Under the new and controversial "mixed" electoral system, half the winning candidates for the 101 seats will come from party lists and half will be elected in constituencies.

The ruling Democratic Party, PD, has put the the top three figures in the party at the top of its list, meaning party leader Vlad Plahotniuc, current Prime Minister Pavel Filip and the parliament speaker, Andrian Candu.

There are also some surprises on the PD list. In 11th place is Otilia Dragutanu, whose husband Dorin was governor of the National Bank when one billion US dollars was stolen from the banking system.

The former interim mayor of Chisinau in 2017 and 2018, Silvia Radu, is also on the PD list, despite her always having said that she was an "independent" candidate with no ties to the party.

On the other hand, the pro-European opposition political ACUM ["NOW"] bloc has put the leader of Action and Solidarity Party, Maia Sandu, and the leader of the Dignity and Truth Platform, Andrei Nastase, at the top of its list.

With few exceptions, this list contains few names that ever held a deputy's mandate or any other high positions in the state.

Also on the list are the vice-presidents of both parties, Igor Grosu and Alexandru Slusari, and two personalities from civil society, Igor Munteanu, former head of the Chisinau-based think tank IDIS Viitorul, and the historian Octavian Ticu.

Their list was formatted with gender equality criteria in mind, having a 40 to 60 per cent ratio of men to women.

The list of the pro-Russian Socialist Party, PSRM,...