Korb: Centre Party prepared to rebuild Narva chapter from ground up

If the Centre Party members serving on Narva City Council suspected of corruption do not resign from their leadership positions in the city, it may lead to a situation in which the regional chapter has to be rebuilt from the ground up, said Centre Party Secretary General Mihhail Korb.
Speaking in an interview on ERR's online broadcast "Straight from the News Building" on Wednesday, Korb said that it is currently too early to get ahead of things, and that the party has to await the results of Wednesday's meeting of the Narva chapter's leadership, the results of which will be discussed at a meeting of the Centre Party board on Friday.
Should the Narva CIty Council members currently facing allegations refuse to step down, however, this could lead to the breakup of the party's Narva chapter.
"Consequences have been taken into account," Korb said. "That would be very sad. I am grateful to those who have established and developed the organisation in Narva. But if this is how things go, then the organisation needs to be rebuilt from the ground up."
The secretary general said that the words "corruption" and "Centre Party" have been linked together too much, and as a result, the public's expectations of the Centre Party are higher than they are for other parties.
"Clearly this is damaging our reputation," Korb said. "This cannot be allowed, and we must fight against this."
Eight members of Narva City Council belonging to the Centre Party were declared suspects in a corruption investigation last week, including Centre Party group chairperson Aleksei Voronov, deputy council chairperson Larissa Olenina and Centre Party group members Ilja Fjodorov, Aleksei Mägi, Tatjana Stolfat, Jelena Pahhomova, Jelizaveta Tsertova and Sergei Lvov.
Defying orders from the party, none of the eight council members have vacated their seats on the council.
Editor: Aili Vahtla