During the meeting, the residents of the municipality spoke in favor of correcting the results of the population census, as serious differences were found between the official data and the real information. And this can directly affect the fate of the villages included in the commune.
It should be emphasized that representatives of local authorities have already spoken about the quantitative differences existing in the state registers more than once during the discussions of the reform. In particular, they pointed out this shortcoming on Saturday, May 16 this year, during the Civic Assembly organized by the Parliament and non-governmental organizations.
It should be reminded that during two days, May 16-17 this year, experts and representatives of local authorities exchanged opinions and information about the forthcoming changes. However, even in the course of these discussions, no clear answers about how the organizers of the reform will act in case such inconsistencies are discovered have been given yet.
The difference amounted to more than 1400 people
According to the lists of the Central Election Commission (CEC), there are 3201 voters in Petresti village.
At the same time, according to the data collected locally by the people’s elected representatives, 410 children study in the gymnasium, while the total number of children under 18 years old is 974.
Together with the voters, there are 4175 people living in the village of Petreşti alone, plus the village of Medeleni, with 356 voters and 47 children. This brings the total number of residents of the two villages to about 4,500. And the official census showed only 3153 – 3186 people. The difference is more than 1,400 people.
According to the mayor, the community has asked the National Bureau of Statistics to publish the roll call lists to verify the data.
Referring to the issue of unification of the mayor’s office, Serhiy Horya emphasized: administrative reform is necessary, but not in the form in which it is being promoted.
“There is not even a road between our villages”
“We were offered to unite with Todiresti village, but there is not even a road between our villages,” explained the mayor, who is in his fourth term in office. – Besides, both the residents of Todiresti and Petresti do not want this. The residents of our municipality voted unanimously against the unification.
We have done everything in our villages with our own resources, with the taxes we collected. We applied for several projects, but they turned out to be the wrong color. However, we are still doing no worse than others. And this should be taken into account. But from the moment the unification starts, our villages will go numb”.
When asked what would happen if the Todiresti Mayor’s Office is forced to merge with the Mayor’s Office of Petresti commune through normative unification, the local elected official said:
“This should not happen. The Law No. 225 of 2023 clearly states that the activity of mayoralties with a population of three thousand people is allowed, and that is how many we are. Someone will have to violate the law to force us to unite.”
