Update — 24 October 2026. This article has been rewritten around the amalgamation map: of the district’s 33 town halls, the merger decisions voted by local councils leave eight. We added what happens in this map to each of the seven town halls led by women today. The figures on women mayors from the first version remain below. The text below has been updated.
Seven of the 33 town halls in Ungheni district are led by women today. In the amalgamation map voted by local councils in July and August 2026, which leaves eight town halls, six of them merge into town halls with their administrative centre in another locality. Only the town of Cornești, led by Angela Vatamaniuc, becomes the centre of a future town hall that also takes in Cornești village and Bumbăta village.
Of the eight centres in the map (Ungheni municipality, Pîrlița, Sculeni, Petrești, Boghenii Noi, Cornești, Bușila and Măcărești), seven have a male mayor today. Current mayors’ terms run until the general local elections of 2027, when the mayors of the new town halls are due to be elected. The groups and their centres are those in the decisions published in the State Register of Local Acts. The map still has to be approved by law, after the State Chancellery reviews the files.
What happens to the town halls led by women
| Town hall today | Mayor | Joins the group centred in | Residents in group (1 Jan. 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornești town | Angela Vatamaniuc | Cornești (group centre) | 4,064 |
| Mănoilești commune | Valentina Grosu | Ungheni municipality | 40,100 |
| Morenii Noi commune | Valentina Lincovscaia | Ungheni municipality | 40,100 |
| Hîrcești commune | Elena Medvițchi | Boghenii Noi | 4,812 |
| Condrătești commune | Svetlana Cojocaru | Boghenii Noi | 4,812 |
| Năpădeni village | Maria Arteomov | Boghenii Noi | 4,812 |
| Negurenii Vechi commune | Galina Uscatu | Bușila | 3,317 |
Group populations are the sum of the units in Ungheni district, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The municipal group also includes Brătuleni commune in Nisporeni district, not counted in the figure. This is not a prediction of who will win the 2027 elections, but the map on which the vote is due to take place.
How much of the district women lead today
One resident in nine lives in the places led by women today: 8,099 people out of 73,971, or 10.9% of the district’s population, according to National Bureau of Statistics data for 1 January 2026. The calculation is the newsroom’s, based on the list of mayors published by Ungheni District Council and the NBS population table by locality.
The share of town halls led by women (21.2%) is higher than the share of their residents (10.9%) because the places led by women are, as a rule, small. Five of the seven have fewer than 1,100 residents. The largest, the commune of Mănoilești, has 2,363. Ungheni municipality, with 25,980 residents, has a male mayor. Leaving the municipality aside, the seven women mayors run places home to 16.9% of the rest of the district’s population.
All seven were elected in the November 2023 local elections, according to the Central Electoral Commission’s list of elected mayors. With 7 women out of 33 mayors (21.2%), Ungheni district is below the national average: 215 women out of 898 elected mayors, or 23.9%.
Who runs the town halls
Town halls led by women, with their population on 1 January 2026:
| Town hall | Mayor | Residents |
|---|---|---|
| Town of Cornești | Angela Vatamaniuc | 1,654 |
| Commune of Mănoilești | Valentina Grosu | 2,363 |
| Commune of Hîrcești | Elena Medvițchi | 1,067 |
| Commune of Negurenii Vechi | Galina Uscatu | 1,059 |
| Commune of Morenii Noi | Valentina Lincovscaia | 822 |
| Commune of Condrătești | Svetlana Cojocaru | 610 |
| Village of Năpădeni | Maria Arteomov | 524 |
The other 26 town halls, including all five with more than 3,000 residents (Ungheni municipality, Pîrlița, Sculeni, Petrești and Măcărești), are led by men. The District Council’s list, checked on 24 October 2026, has the same 33 mayors as the 2023 CEC list.
Ungheni compared with other districts
We counted the women in the CEC list for each of the 35 districts, municipalities and Gagauzia. Ungheni ranks 21st. The highest shares are in Cahul (15 women out of 37 mayors, 40.5%), Strășeni (10 of 27, 37%) and Chișinău municipality (7 of 19, 36.8%). The lowest: Rezina (2 of 25, 8%) and Bălți municipality, where all three elected mayors are men.
About the figures: a report by the Partnership for Development Center (CPD), published in 2023 with the support of several donors, including UN Women, and calculated on CEC data, gives Ungheni district 24.2% women among elected mayors. The CEC’s list by name contains seven women out of 33 mayors, or 21.2%; this article uses the CEC list.