Eurasia Press & News
Moldova’s Communist Party took lead in the snap parliamentary elections on Wednesday, but lost the majority it held for eight years in Parliament to a group of pro-western opposition parties, showed the final preliminary results announced on Friday by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC).
According to CEC President Eugen Stirbu, the communists recorded a score of 44.77 percent, followed by the Liberal Democrat Party with 16.6 percent of the vote and the Liberal Partywith 14.7 percent, while the Democratic Party finished with 12.5 percent and Our Moldova Alliance 7.3 percent.
The Communists Party, which has ruled the former Soviet republic since 2001, is likely to get 48 seats in the new parliament, 12 less than the number it got in the April 5 election.
The Liberal Democrat Party was expected to get 18 seats, the Liberal Party 15, the Democratic Party 13 and Our Moldova Alliance seven seats.
Moldova is a parliamentary republic, where the parliament elects the president. Under the constitution, at least 61 votes of the 101-member parliament are required for electing a president.
The four opposition parties might form a coalition government with a majority of 53 seats in the Parliament but they would need at least 61 votes to choose a president.
Moldova has been in disarray since the April parliamentary elections sparked violent protests that stormed the parliament and the presidential building, with the opposition claiming that vote was rigged.
Wednesday’s elections were called after parliament failed to elect a successor to outgoing President Vladimir Voronin, the leader of the communists who has served the maximum two years in office.
Even if a new president might not be elected in the coming weeks, there won’t be any other general elections this year in Moldova, since the constitution rules out a second snap election in the same year. In this case, Voronin will keep his role till the elections in 2010.
