| THE DIFFICULT PROCESS OF ELECTING THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 11/11/2009 |
| (2009-11-11) |
| Last updated: 2009-11-12 14:00 EET |
When the whole Europe was marking 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova was, once again, trying to split with the past and break the imaginary wall separating it from Romania and the EU, by electing a non-communist president. Still nostalgic about the former USSR, the communists lost the elections this year and the Democratic majority took over the legislative and executive power in Chisniau. However, the Democrats’ power turnout out to be a limited one, as they are unable to nominate the President of the Republic of Moldova for the following 4 years, as the candidate should be endorsed by Parliament. The Democratic Alliance needs 8 votes from the communists for their candidate, Marian Lupu, the former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, to become president.
So far, the communists rallied around their communist leader, Vladimir Voronin, and all possible talks on the issue are blocked. After Tuesday’s failed attempt to elect Lupu, under the constitution, a new nomination should be made in the following 30 days. However, analysts estimate that early elections are very likely, but not until June 2010. Another solution that has been intensely debated refers to the possibility of holding a referendum, to give Moldovans the chance to elect their president by direct voting. The overall impression is that the Communist deputies will not change their stand and will not accept, in a traditionally paternalist state, that the president be nominated by parties guided by an opposite doctrine, which could gradually remove them from the political scene; as these democratic parties keep distance from Moscow and want, in exchange, a normalisation of the relations with Romania, the country’s accession to the EU, and why not, going out of the Commonwealth of Independent States and joining NATO.
Russia, which has played a prominent role in the Republic of Moldova in the past 8 years of communist government, is now ready to accept a moderate non-communist candidate in Chishinau, willing to tolerate the pro-Russian dinosaurs in parliament and Moscow’s role of power broker in the Republic of Moldova. The strategic role of such an approach is to slow down Moldova’s progress in the relation with the EU and Romania and re-orient Chishinau towards Russia. In this context, the Democratic alliance is called upon to make of the first reforms that it started after taking over power-resume dialogue with the EU and the IMF, unfreeze the relations with Romania and Ukraine- an internal success with big echoes among the electorate which is quite confused about the future of the country. The latest poll conducted in October shows the fragile balance between pro and anti-Communist options in maintained. Pundits say that if the Democratic alliance resists all pressures in the following 6 months, it stands chances of securing a decisive victory over the communists.
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2025-04-03
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