Eurasia Press & News
An elderly Moldovan woman casts her vote in a mobile ballot box brought to her by election officials in the village of Dorotchaia, near the border with the pro-Russian breakaway Transdniester region.
The country voted yesterday for a new parliament that will choose a successor to President Voronin, the only Communist leader in Europe and the former Soviet Union, whose second four-year term ends tomorrow.
Exit polls suggested victory for the ruling Communist party, predicting that they had won 45 per cent of the vote. Three pro-European parties managed to get enough votes to make them eligible for the 101-seat legislature, with exit polls showing them winning 37 seats.
Moldovans living in areas controlled by separatists were prevented from going to polling stations. No ballots were held in Transdniester, where Russia has 500 troops.
Located between Ukraine and Romania, Moldova was part of Romania before its annexation by the Soviet Union in the Second World War. One of Europe’s poorest countries, it has been criticised by international groups for its slow progress toward full democracy
