Irina Vlah, president and founder of “Platforma Moldova”, candidate for the position of President of the Republic of Moldova, during a briefing, spoke about the campaign to collect signatures in support of her presidential candidacy, stating that 24 thousand were collected of signatures and that the process continues. At the same time, the politician referred to the “less beautiful part” of the signature collection campaign, referring to pressure from the authorities, informs TRIBUNA. 

“As you well know, immediately after the registration of the initiative group, as stipulated by the legislation in force, we started a large campaign to collect signatures at the level of the entire country. I was pleasantly surprised by people’s responsiveness, by their sincere desire to support me, for which I thank them from the bottom of my heart. The energy of these people, the desire to get involved is for me another proof that the decision to run for the position of President of the Republic of Moldova was a correct one. Namely, the sincere and big-hearted people I have met before, but also in this signature collection campaign, they give me the necessary strength to move forward.

Up to this stage, my colleagues from the initiative group have collected 24 thousand signatures. They were collected from 23 districts. We will continue our campaign in the following days, and at the end we will submit the collected signatures to the Central Electoral Commission, as provided by the legislation in force.

I apologize to the people in the localities that we will not reach during this signature collection campaign. I have several signals from these localities that we are expected and that there is a great desire to support me. But physically we will not be able to reach everywhere in the period that was made available to us, but also because the number of signatures we can submit to the CEC is limited – a maximum of 25,000. But I promise that during the electoral campaign, and after that, I will visit these localities, because for me it is very important to talk with our citizens, to inform myself from the first source about the problems they face and to jointly identify solutions for them”, she said.

Referring to the “less beautiful side” of the campaign, Irina Vlah said that, during the last weeks, she was still followed by the collaborators of the special bodies. “There were situations, like, for example, in Soroca, when I simply had to approach them and ask them openly: Why are they behaving so badly, so defiantly? Especially since those whom I considered to be officers with a certain verticality and professional dignity continued to provide erroneous information to the government’s pocket press, which once again attempted to denigrate me”, she stated.

Also, the candidate designated for the head of state drew attention “to the pressure exerted on those in the printing industry, but also on those in the street advertising industry, with the aim of determining them not to work with Irina Vlah”. “The veiled message was: work with whoever you want, but not with Irina Vlah. This once again confirms to me that I am perceived by the government and personally by Maia Sandu as enemy number 1, who must be blocked at all costs. I want to emphasize this way as well: for me there is no greater pride than being the number 1 enemy of the regime that impoverished the people and destroyed the country!” declared the politician.

Irina Vlah mentioned that, lately, she is constantly being sent messages that the fear of the regime leads her to consider the scenario of her not being admitted to the electoral race.

“I understand that instructions will be given and pressure will be applied so that Irina Vlah is not officially registered as a candidate for the position of President. In this situation, I reserve the right to address in the coming days to the observers, to those who monitor the events of the electoral period and the electoral campaign, including foreign observers. I will directly request that they get involved and monitor closely the way in which the documents and the lists of signatures that I will submit to the CEC will be examined. I can only defend myself from the abuses of the government in two ways: relying on the correctness of observers, especially foreign ones, and relying on the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who support me.

In this way, I send a clear message to the government: do not play with fire, because the consequences can be completely different from those you expect! You came to power democratically, be good and respect democracy! Otherwise, you will go to the graveyard of history in the most shameful way possible!” concluded the candidate designated for the position of President of the country.