Ion Ceban: Moldova mayor warned by CEC over Italy trip
Moldova’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has issued a warning to the suspended mayor of the capital, Ion Ceban, for using administrative resources in his electoral campaign.
The CEC also asked police to investigate Mr Ceban's recent visit to Italy and to start legal proceedings.
The move follows a complaint from the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), which focused on Mr Ceban's trip to Rome in late August. PAS argues that a video message filmed in the city and posted on social media favoured the “Alternativa” Electoral Bloc.
However, Alexei Paniș, a representative of the bloc, denied the allegations during the CEC meeting, stating Ceban travelled to Italy “as a private citizen” and not “as mayor.”
CEC Vice-President Pavel Postica read a response from the Italian embassy in Chișinău which confirmed Mr Ceban was granted a visa to travel to Italy in his capacity as the capital's mayor, not as a private citizen.
The trip comes after Mr Ceban was banned from entering Romania and the Schengen area for five years in July. He filmed himself on 31 August in Rome, Italy, in front of the Colosseum. "We are building Europe at home," Mr Ceban said in a video from Italy, adding that Chișinău had signed agreements worth more than 2.2 billion Moldovan Lei (about £97m) with the EU.
The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs later clarified that Mr Ceban had received a special visa. "As an exceptional measure," a ministry statement said, Mr Ceban was granted a single-entry visa valid only until 3 September to attend a UNESCO-sponsored conference.
Mr Ceban is at the top of the "Alternativa" Bloc's candidate list for the parliamentary elections on 28 September. The bloc includes the National Alternative Movement Party, led by Mr Ceban; the Party for Development and Consolidation of Moldova, led by former Prime Minister Ion Chicu; the Civic Congress, led by former deputy Mark Tkaciuk; and former Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
