CHISINAU. Nov 11 (Interfax) - About 2,000 people are rallying in Chisinau to demand President Nicolae Timofti's resignation.
The demonstrators approached the presidential compound from a tent city near the parliament building, where an open-ended protest has been held since September 25, an Interfax correspondent reported from the scene.
The demonstrators are holding flags of Moldova and the opposition Our Party, which organized the event. They are chanting 'Return power to the people!', 'Timofti, resign!', 'Down with mafia!', 'Timofti, go!' and other slogans.
Over 150 policemen have been deployed to maintain order near the presidential residence and are not intervening in the protest.
Our Party leader Renato Usatii is not taking part in the rally, as he is currently at a Moscow clinic. He called on his supporters through social networks on Wednesday morning to join the protest.
Usatii's deputy, Nicolae Tipovici, said at the rally that the demonstrators who had pitched tents near the parliament had passed their demand to the presidential secretariat that the president resign voluntarily a month before.
"We've been protesting for a month, and there is nothing. But we do exist! We don't want to live in an atmosphere of robbery and hopelessness any longer! We want to live and work in a prospering Moldova, and we don't want to leave and don't want to see our children leave! We demand Timofti's voluntary resignation, and we are passing our demands in writing once again," Tipovici said.
Ion Paduraru, the secretary general at the presidential office, approached the protesters and said on Timotfi's behalf that the president could not meet the protesters' demands, as this would cause "a political crisis and the administration's collapse."
Despite government representatives and protest leaders having held negotiations earlier, the rally near the presidential secretariat is continuing.