2009-12-09

On 7 December the Moldovan parliament's second attempt to elect a president ended in failure. The communist party refused to back the ruling coalition's candidate, the Democratic Party leader Marian Lupu. This means that the period of political uncertainty in Moldova, which started with the April elections, will continue at least until the autumn of 2010.

The Alliance for European Integration fell eight votes short of electing its candidate as president. The communist deputies boycotted the election, implementing the strategy of its leader, the former president Vladimir Voronin, who wants an early election to be held, hoping that the Alliance will break apart and the economic crisis will influence the voters' sentiments.
Theoretically, the acting president, Liberal Party leader Mihai Ghimpu, should dissolve parliament in mid-June 2010 and call new elections. However, the ruling coalition will try to avoid this by changing the method of electing the president (by adopting a new constitution through a referendum), or, failing that, postpone the early elections under the pretext of a lack of clarity in the relevant legal regulations. It may also decide to hold the elections in autumn; the government has been promised assistance from international finance organisations, and does not need to fear a drastic economic breakdown. Also, since it has taken control over the public media, while the communists have lost the ability to use administrative and police pressure on the voters,, the communists’ electoral showing may be worse than last July, while the parties of the Alliance may make gains. <wrod>
 

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