Dodon says PSRM may field candidate against Ceban in 2027
Socialist Party leader Igor Dodon has questioned Victoria Belous's chances in the 2027 Chișinău mayoral race, while saying his party may field its own candidate against incumbent Ion Ceban.
Dodon backs Ceban over PAS candidate
Dodon described Belous, the Finance Minister and candidate proposed by the ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), as an energetic person but said he did not believe she could defeat Ceban.
“I don't think anyone can beat Mr Ceban in this election,” Dodon said when asked about Belous's candidacy.
The Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) has not ruled out entering the race with its own candidate, Dodon added.
“I believe Mr Ceban has every chance of winning in the first round. We will try to compete with him. Obviously, as the second most important party in the Republic of Moldova, we must have a candidate and fight this electoral contest. We will see how things develop,” the Socialist leader said.
Dodon argued that, if the party nominates a political figure, that person should be among its top three or four leaders.
Asked whether he might run himself, Dodon referred to his previous bid for the Chișinău mayoralty in 2011, saying that experience had influenced his subsequent decision to support Ceban as the party's candidate.
Dodon recalls his 2011 mayoral bid
Dodon ran against incumbent Dorin Chirtoacă in the 2011 mayoral election. He recalled receiving 48.6% of the vote in the first round and 49.9% in the runoff, alleging that the results had changed overnight, at around 6 a.m.
However, the official results differ from the figures cited by Dodon. He received 48.07% in the first round and 49.40% in the runoff, while Chirtoacă won the second round with 50.60%.
“I ran for mayor of Chișinău in 2011, perhaps you don't know that because you are still young. I have experience. In Chișinău, I found someone younger, as I have said before,” the former president said.
Seven years since Ceban's first mayoral victory
Dodon also noted that November 3 marks seven years since Ceban won the Chișinău mayoral election in 2019, when he ran as a PSRM candidate against Andrei Năstase.
Asked whether he would congratulate Ceban on the anniversary, Dodon referred to his victory as the Socialist Party's candidate.
Ceban was one of Dodon's trusted political allies at the time. However, at the end of 2021, after approximately nine years with the PSRM, Ceban announced that he was leaving the party.
In January 2023, he registered his own political formation, the National Alternative Movement (MAN). He subsequently ran under its banner in the November 5, 2023, general local elections.
Ceban won a second mayoral term in the first round, securing 50.62% of the vote. PAS candidate Lilian Carp came second with 28.23%, while PSRM candidate Adrian Albu received 4.52%.
In the Chișinău Municipal Council, MAN and PAS secured 20 seats each out of 51. The PSRM won six seats, while the remaining five went to the Party of Communists, the Dignity and Truth Platform, the Renaissance Party and Our Party.
Belous outlines priorities for Chișinău
Finance Minister Victoria Belous accepted PAS's proposal on November 2 to run for mayor of Chișinău in next year's general local elections.
She said she was taking on the challenge with “an immense sense of responsibility” and argued that the capital needed “an administration with a rigorous and sustainable vision.”
Belous, 42, began her career as a tax inspector in 2007. After 17 years in the field, she became deputy head of the State Tax Service.
She served as Finance Minister from August 2024 to October 2025, before becoming a PAS member of parliament and joining the Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Budget and Finance. She returned to the Finance Ministry in July 2026.
Among the main challenges she has identified in Chișinău are overcrowded schools, air pollution, unregulated construction, a shortage of kindergartens and schools in newly developed residential districts, and ageing water supply and sewage infrastructure.
Belous said addressing these problems would require a strategic approach based on complex projects designed to transform the city not only over the next four years but also for decades to come.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
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