Mayor of Balti Alexander Petkov
“I am not afraid of the referendum, and I have even submitted the initiative to hold it to the municipal council commissions for discussion,” Balti Mayor Aleksandar Petkov told Logos Press. – But I believe that the Socialists’ initiative will not succeed because it has no legal basis. Besides, according to the legislation, there are other procedures in Moldova, by which they have already tried to organize my resignation through a referendum, but the Central Electoral Commission refused to hold it. They accuse me of the fact that, allegedly, the city was not ready for winter, and because of this the roads suffered. But the roads were damaged all over the country, while in Balti the potholes appeared on the roads that were repaired before us, when the socialists were still in power. And by the way, we are already starting to repair them, because the excess moisture has gone. And those roads, which we built during the two years of the mandate, have not suffered. Because they are of high quality.
This is how the statement of the PSRM municipal councilors in Balti, Serghei Gramma and Vitalie Nogal, was commented by the mayor, Alexandru Petcov. On Monday, they said that there are all legal grounds to raise the question of holding a referendum on his resignation.
Why PSRM demands resignation
During the briefing, representatives of the PSRM faction in the Balti Municipal Council explained their decision by saying that the city is in a “deep crisis.” There is “no economic growth, no serious infrastructure projects or investments” due to the ineffective leadership of the mayor.
The lack of an approved budget for 2026, the poor condition of roads, unpreparedness for the winter period, etc. were also mentioned as problems.
The PSRM faction intends to consider at the meeting of the Municipal Council a draft decision that provides for the possibility to initiate a local referendum on the mayor’s resignation. This requires two-thirds of the councilors’ votes. After that, the documents will be sent to the CEC, which will set the date of voting.
The first attempt failed
In January last year, there was already an attempt to organize a referendum, which was denied to the initiators. At that time, the Central Election Commission explained its refusal by the fact that the accusations were declarative and not supported by documents.
Primar Bălţi commented on the Socialists’ initiative, calling it from the legal point of view “a piffle”. From the political point of view, he called it “another attempt to make noise instead of work”.
