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General information on election for General Mayor of Chisinau

After declaring its independence and sovereignty, in 1990 Moldova underwent through processes that changed the central and local public administration. In 1990 Nicolae Costin was appointed as mayor of Chisinau; he was considered the first democratic mayor of the capital city and exercised that position until 9 August 1994, when was dismissed by presidential decree. During Nicolae Costin’s term of office in Chisinau municipality were included nearby localities (cities and villages)^[1], this change aiming at securing the demographic balance of residents and voters. After the revocation of Nicolae Costin until May 1995, Serafim Urechean served as interim mayor of Chisinau.

On April 16, 1995 nationwide local elections were held in the Republic of Moldova, but in some localities, including Chisinau municipality, the elections were declared invalid because of low voter turnout (less than half of voters). By Presidential Decree of 10 May 1995 Serafim Urechean was appointed the mayor of Chisinau municipality. The decree was issued under the Law on local elections in force at that time and stated that the Chisinau City Hall would also exercise the competences of municipal council for a general four-year term.

Subsequently, by the Constitutional Court Decision No. 36 of 10.12.1998RO the Decree on the appointment of the Chisinau City Hall has been declared unconstitutional; however, the Constitutional Court ruled that its decision is not retroactive; it will take effect only in the future and cannot be executed immediately, given the upcoming elections. Thus, Serafim Urechean and persons who have been appointed in the City Hall exercised a full mandate as executive and representative body (council), even if the appointment act was unconstitutional. Only in the 1999 local elections, the first directly voted mayor and municipal council of Chisinau were elected.

As a rule, election for mayor of Chisinau municipality took place simultaneously with nationwide local elections, but in 2005 there were new elections, because Serafim Urechean resigned from office before the end of his term, being elected Member of Parliament.

The new 2005 elections were unsuccessful. Both the July and November-December elections were declared invalid because of low voter turnout. After four unsuccessful attempts to elect the mayor of Chisinau municipality, the central authorities decided to establish a moratorium and to postpone elections until the general elections, planned for 2007. Thus, in 2005–2007 the interim Chisinau mayor office was assured by the deputy mayors: Vasile Ursu (April 2005 – January 2007) and Veaceslav Iordan (January-April 2007).

The status and competences of the general mayor of Chisinau municipality

The competences, obligations and activity of Chisinau mayor is set out by the legislation on local administration and the Law No. 431-XIII of 19.04.1995 on the status of Chisinau municipality. The Mayor is the official, representative of executive authority in the local public administration. In exercising his/her competences, the mayor serves the community. The competences of the mayor of Chisinau municipality are similar to the competences of any mayor in Moldova, established by Article 29 of the Law on local public administration, and among the most important are the following:

• to execute the decisions of local council;
• to appoint the heads of subdivisions, services, municipal enterprises subordinated to the relevant local public administration, the city hall personnel;
• to perform the function of chief credit officer;
• to lead, coordinate and control the activities of local public services;
• to issue permits and licenses stipulated by law;
• to allocate the housing fund and control over its maintenance and management;
• to represent the local community in relations with other public authorities, individuals or legal entities in the country or abroad etc.

The general mayor of capital city also has a number of additional special tasks stipulated by the Law on the status of Chisinau municipality and basically concerns the relationship of the general mayor with the administrative sectors of Chisinau municipality and their administration (praetors and praeturas). Thus, in every sector of Chisinau municipality, the general mayor shall appoint, under the law, a praetor, who is representative of the general mayor, assisted by a staff, called the praetura.

The cessation of mayor’s mandate

The mayor shall exercise his competences since validation of mandate till validation of next mayor’s mandate, except for the cases when the mandate ceases earlier, as follows:

• resignation;
• incompatibility of position;
• inability to perform the competences for more than 4 consecutive months, including on ground of illness;
• entry into force of the convicting sentence;
• death.