Communists take lead in Moldova’s parliamentary elections

CHISINAU, April 9 – Moldova’s Communists got 49.48 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to the preliminary data of the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Thursday.

The Party of Communists was followed by the Liberal Party with 13.14 percent, the Liberal Democrat Party with 12.43 percent and Our Moldova Alliance with 9.77 percent, according to the CEC. 

The Communists are likely to get 60 seats in the new parliament, one seat less than the minimum number needed to elect its own candidate as president, the official Moldpres news agency reported.

The Liberal Party is expected to get 15 seats, the Liberal Democrat Party may win 15 seats, and Our Moldova Alliance is likely to have 11 seats.

As many as 12 political parties and five independent candidates ran for the 101-seat parliament in Sunday’s election. The threshold for representation in parliament is 6 percent of the valid votes for parties and 3 percent for independent candidates.

Under Moldova’s Constitution, the country is a parliamentary republic, where the parliament elects the president and approves the candidacy of prime minister along with members of the new cabinet.

The current president, Vladimir Voronin, will leave office at the end of his second term. The future parliament will have to elect a new president.