Electoral contestants for Chisinau mayoralty

Mihai Petrache
Candidate of the Centrist Union of Moldova (CUM)

Electoral slogans:
The mayors are not born mayors, they are elected!
Order in the capital - order in the country!

Biography

Mihai Petrache was born in 1958 in village Lipoveni, district Cimislia. He finished the Agricultural Secondary School of Taul (Donduseni), in 1980 graduated from the Law Faculty of the Mikhail Lomonosov Moscow State University, and in 1994 - from the Academy for Education and Development in the USA. He started his professional career as Deputy Prosecutor of the Chisinau Municipality. From 1990 to 1997 he was Head of the Legal Division of the Parliament Apparatus. In 1997-1999 he was legal advisor to President Petru Lucinschi, and Senior Presidential Councillor. Since 2001 he has been Member of Parliament of Moldova, and since 2002 - Chairperson of the Centrist Union of Moldova. Mihai Petrache is author and co-author of various draft laws, conceptions and development strategies, such as the blueprint of the Constitution of Moldova (1990-1994), the Conception of the Judicial and Legal Reform (1992-1994) etc. He was an advocate of instituting a presidential regime in Moldova. He is married and has two children. He speaks Romanian, Russian and French.

Electoral programme (abridged)

In the Chisinau municipality and in the 19 towns and communes, included in the municipality, there live around 1 million people, i.e. 23% of the Moldovan population.

From this point of view one can easily see the role and importance of the municipality for the normal development of the municipality and the country as a whole in the political, economic, socio-cultural and scientific aspects.

As obvious is and should be the main function of the Chisinau administration - the Municipal Council and the General Mayor, which is the proper representation of the will of Chisinau residents and the resolution of the most pressing problems faced by the capital and its residents.

Depending on the nature of social relations, the factors that cause certain problems and the people and authorities that need to solve them, we are presenting you the objectives of our programme, organised in compartments, as follows:

I. In the political and administrative fields

1. The source of power of the Municipal Council and the General Mayor of Chisinau is the political will of the residents of the municipality.

2. The election of authorities of Chisinau, through democratic and direct elections is an act of assuming mutual responsibility by the candidates running for power, on the one hand, and the citizens, on the other hand, who, through their vote, will decide who and how will govern the capital over the next four years.

3. The Chisinau Municipality should be an example for the entire country in what concerns the functioning of the democratic political system at the level of the local public administration.

4. To solve efficiently and in time the economic and socio-cultural problems of the municipality, the relations between the administration of Chisinau and the state public authorities (Parliament, Presidency, Government, ministers and departments) must be government by the principles of co-operation and co-ordination of activities, under the law and in the interests of citizens.

5. In the relations between the Chisinau authorities and the authorities of villages, communes and towns from the municipality, there needs to be also co-operation and co-ordination of activities, and in no way should the suburbs be sub-ordinate to the capital.

6. Ensuring public order, personal security of citizens in the street, public places, in apartment blocs and in their houses is the first duty of the municipal administration.

II. In the economic and financial fields

1. The municipal council and the general mayor of the Chisinau municipality should be a functional and efficient mechanism in the activity related to the planing and administration of the economic development of the capital, taking into account the following:

1. Developing a programme of complex development of the Chisinau municipality under the economic, industrial, architectural, social, scientific and cultural aspects, with the involvement of specialised institutions and its approval following public debates. The programme should be based on the priorities of the economic development, the peculiarities of the current urban planning, national traditions and the experience accumulated by capitals of developed countries;
2. The need to fight bureaucracy in the activity of the administration of mayoralties, departments, services and municipal enterprises through ensuring their functional and administrative autonomy and increasing the responsibility of decision makers and implementers;
3. Hiring to the municipal services of competent, honest, dynamic and responsible individuals, or civic and moral probity, with the capacity and will to work in the interest of the residents of Chisinau and of the municipality on the whole.

2. Create the favourable and necessary conditions for direct foreign investments and foreign grants, intended for the development of the social urban infrastructure, creation of new municipal enterprises, modernising the existent ones with a view to increase and diversify the produced goods and the provided services, together with the creation of new jobs and the increase of returns to the municipal budget.

3. Implementing the programme of rehabilitation of the distribution network of thermal agents (heating, hot water), that belongs to "Termocom". This programme was abandoned in an unmotivated way in 1998. According to published data, during 1998-2003, the losses and thefts of thermal energy constitute 30-40 %, which is the equivalent of the volume of spending necessary to heat the houses ion Chisinau during 1.5-2 years, or around 500 million Moldovan that go wasted.

1. Abolishing the monopoly of such enterprises as "Termocom", "Apa-canal" and CET through re-organising them and setting up a single municipal thermo-energetic complex which will ensure the co-ordination of the technological process of production and supply with electricity, heat, hot water etc.

4. Concluding the programme of installing gas meters in every house, by applying an accessible and stimulating mechanism for consumers, taking into account the purchase and installation of meters with funds from credits at low (symbolic) interest, or through the gradual payment of the cost and services, in circumstances convenient for the consumers.

5. Setting up at the mayoralty of a specialised department authorised to perform all purchases of goods and services necessary for the normal functioning of the thermo-energetic complex and the municipal infrastructure (gas, electricity, construction materials, technical equipment etc.). All purchases will be public and open to all eligible contestants in conditions of legality, transparency and public control.

6. Building a modern factory of house and industrial waste processing, whose construction has been constantly delayed over the past 20 years.

Chisinau is not the political property of any party or individual. The mayors and councillors are not born as such, they are elected!

The responsibility is mutual. The voter has a vote on which his/her life depends for the next four years. We, those who will be elected, will implement our programme and justify the vote of confidence of our voters in the next elections.