Ion Ceban, Deputy President of the Moldova Parliament, the PSRM Secretary for Ideology
Ion Ceban was born on June 30, 1980 in Chisinau. He is a politician, deputy president of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova (2019), member of the Moldova Parliament in three legislatures, former President of the faction of the Socialists Party of the Republic of Moldova in the Chisinau Municipal Council (2015-2019).
Ceban is the secretary for ideology of the Socialist Party. He is currently a PhD student in Public Administration, РАНХИГС, Moscow, Russia.
He has been an active participant in the protests organized in Moldova from 2009 to 2019.
In 2018 he participated as a Socialists candidate for the election of the general mayor of Chisinau, but lost to his counter-candidate Andrei Nastase.
Ceban is a strong and noisy supporter of Russia’s narratives and politics. He expressed publicly a statement for supporting Sergei Sobianin the Putin’s candidate for the position of Mayor of Moscow. Sobianin is close to Putin and the Edynaya Rossia Party, being denied by a large number of Moscow residents which provoked weekly protest in Moscow against him.
Even considering the fact that the Moscow’s election is not a matter of interest for the Moldovan society, the statement of Ciobanu was addressed to diaspora working and leaving in Russia on the idea do not participate into protests.
Ceban is appreciated and considered as a potential successor of Igor Dodon on eventual change of the Socialists Party leader.
Ceban has been accused several times of involvement in corruption schemes. Although he represents a pro-Russian and anti-European orientation party, his family members are running a number of companies involved in projects financed by European or American money.
On September 15, 2019, Ion Ceban announced his intention to run for mayor of Chisinau. Like his main counter-candidate, Andrei Nastase, Ceban is running for the second time in this position
Just like last time, Ceban was a candidate from the Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova, a left-wing formation with pro-Russian views advocating for Moldova’s integration into the Customs Union. During the election campaign, the Socialist candidate for the position of mayor of Chisinau actively gave interviews and “collaborated” with many media outlets. These media are usually pro-Russian or are affiliated with PSRM.
Thus, using these tools of influence, the candidate has created a positive image during the electoral race, thanks to publications such as Komsomolskaya Pravda, RTR Moldova, NTV, Accent TV, THT. A report on the activities of these media during the campaign can be found on the website of the Center for Independent Journalism. As a result of the monitoring, it was found that they clearly favored the Socialist candidate, Ion Cheban, offering him a wide broadcast space and reflecting his activities exclusively in a positive context.
Ion Ceban won the local elections in Chisinau from the second round.
Later, on November 18, after entering his rights, Ceban announced that in a few months, the town hall will move to a modern, open space building, and the historic building where the town hall is located will probably be restored and transformed into a museum. Ceban gave directions to the Department of Finance to plan in the 2020 budget resources to repair the historic City Hall building.
According to the mayor, this measure is necessary because there is no transparency in the town hall. This “open space” in which the civil servants should activate will be equipped with cameras, and this will allow the activity of the institution to be as transparent and efficient as possible. However, Ceban said that, according to tradition, the meeting room and the mayor’s office will remain in the old building, which has raised several concerns about the transparency of the activity of the mayor.
Media references:
https://actualitati.md/md/foto-moskovskie-druzja-iona-chebana
https://www.zdg.md/editia-print/politic/tranzactiile-imobiliare-firmele-si-proiectele-finantate-de-occident-din-familia-socialistului-ion-ceban
