Moldova 2009

Moldova held a snap general election on July 29 after a previous election on April 5 led to deadlock in the parliamentary vote during the election of the Moldovan President. The Constitution requires that the President be elected by a three-fifths majority, or 61 of the 101 seats in the country’s unicameral legislature. The Communist Party (PCRM) won only 60 seats and all other (pro-western-Romanian liberal) parties refused to vote for the PCRM’s candidate due to questions over the transparency of the April election. As a result, a new election had to be held.

Considerably fewer parties and candidates ran in the snap election, but the major parties stayed the same: the socialist Communists (PCRM), which are very hard to classify correctly; the Liberal Party (PL) and the Liberal-Democratic Party (PLDM), new pro-western liberals; the liberal Our Moldova Alliance (AMN) and the Democratic Party (PDM) now led by Marian Lupu, a PCRM dissident. The PPCD, which had seats until April 2009, is a Christian democratic centre-right party known for its support of Moldovan unification with Romania.

Results with 99.8% tallied. Turnout was 58.8%, slightly up on April.

PCRM 44.76% (-4.72%) winning 48 seats (-12)
Liberal-Democratic 16.55% (+4.12%) winning 18 seats (+4)
Liberal 14.61% (+1.48%) winning 15 seats (nc)
Democratic Party 12.55% (+9.58%) winning 13 seats (+13)
Our Moldova 7.35% (-2.42%) winning 7 seats (-4)
PPCD 1.91% (-1.13%) winning 0 seats (nc)

The PCRM has lost a dozen seats, though with the support of the PDM, which is, after all, a centre-left party led by a guy who was a member of the PCRM until this year, it can have the 61 votes. However, if Marian Lupu holds a grudge against his Communist friends, then he, with the liberal opposition, prevents the election of the PCRM’s candidate. However, this coalition can’t impose a candidate since it only has 53 votes, a majority but not a three-fifths majority. The outcomes of this election are either yet another snap election (unlikely), a PCRM-PDM coalition or even a Grand Coalition (as proposed by the Communist leader, Vladimir Voronin).

Hopefully, though, this won’t lead to more protests like last time or political instability.