The battle for Capital mayor has always been fierce. Only Serafim Urechean succeeded in the 1999 elections to win from the first round. Since then, the candidates carry on their battles in the second round.

Immediately after the declaration of sovereignty, only the first two mayors of Chisinau were appointed by the central authorities and not elected.

Nicolae Costin ruled the city between 1990 and 1994. And in 1995, his successor, Serafim Urechean, came to the City Hall by a presidential decree, after the local elections were declared invalid because of the low turnout.

The Chişinău governor was elected for the first time by direct vote in 1999. Then Serafim Urechean, who had run independently and had Vasile Iovv's opponent on the block of Communists, Agrarians and Socialists, won the first round.

After the 2003 elections, Urechean reached the headquarters again. This time he only managed to win the ballot in the second round after a duel with Vasile Zgardan, backed by the Communist Party. The mayor's chair remains free in 2005, when Urechean was elected deputy. That's why the inhabitants of the capital were called back to the polls.

After four unsuccessful attempts, organized in summer and autumn because of the low voter turnout, the central authorities decided to postpone the elections until the general elections in 2007. Meanwhile, the interim mayor was assured by Deputy Mayors Vasile Ursu and Veaceslav Iordan.

In the summer of 2007, Jordan, proposed by PCRM, arrives in the second round with liberal Dorin Chirtoaca. The latter won the elections with more than 61 percent of the vote.

Four years later, in the second round of the 2011 poll, the battle was at the limit. Communist Party candidate Igor Dodon was on the brink of taking over the City Hall. Liberal Dorin Chirtoaca surpassed Dodon by only one percent and won the second term of office.

In 2015, Chirtoaca was elected Chief of the Capital for the third time. After the duel of the second round with the Socialist Zinaida Greceanii, he defeated by over 53 percent of the total number of votes.