Translated material
Coalition without a president
In Moldova, forecasts are being made for new elections
The preliminary results of the early parliamentary elections held in Moldova on July 29 are almost no different from those announced earlier by the Moldovan Central Election Commission. Processing of all ballots showed that the Communist Party, which has ruled the republic since 2001, receives 48 deputy mandates out of 101, the Liberal Democratic Party - 18, the Liberal Party - 15, the Democratic Party - 13, the Moldova Oura alliance - seven.If after the previous parliamentary elections on April 5, the communists, who received almost 50% of the votes and received 60 mandates, were able to achieve approval of the government and the leadership of parliament, now they have lost this opportunity. But even four opposition parties with their 53 mandates are not able to approve the president without the participation of communist deputies (this requires a minimum of 61 mandates). It was precisely because of the inability of the communists to get their candidate to the presidency after the parliamentary elections on April 5 (opposition deputies then refused to participate in the vote) that the current president and leader of the Communist Party, 68-year-old Vladimir Voronin, was forced to announce a new parliamentary campaign.
Based on the results of the latest elections, observers initially did not rule out the possibility of creating a parliamentary coalition of communists with the Democratic Party, led by former speaker Marian Lupu (pictured) , who left the communist party in early June. But last Friday, 43-year-old Lupu declared the impossibility of creating a narrow bilateral coalition with any party and advocated the formation of the broadest possible coalition. On the same day, at a meeting of Communist Party activists, a decision was made to move to the “responsible opposition.” “It is impossible to resist in any other way the scenarios of destruction of the economy, social sphere and the very statehood of the Republic of Moldova,” the party press release specified.
And on Friday, as Alexandru Tanase, vice-chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, told Vremya Novostei, the leaders of four opposition parties agreed on a coalition. One of these days it is expected to develop a basic protocol that will define the principles of their cooperation. “An agreement in principle has been reached on the creation of a coalition of four,” honorary chairman of the Democratic Party Dmitry Dyakov confirmed to VN. Now, according to him, its participants will face difficult negotiations on the terms of joint work.
Experts also argue about how and when a new president will be elected. As Mr. Dyakov recalled, in 2005 his party supported the election of Voronin, and now the time has come for the communists to repay the debt, “especially since they previously talked so much about the need to ensure stability and harmony in the country.” Otherwise, he said, the Communist Party could get even worse results in the next elections. Marian Lupu, when asked about his proposed nomination for the presidency, replied that “this political exercise is impossible,” since there must be at least 15 nominated deputies. In his faction, let us remind you, there are 13 deputies.
By law, parliament cannot be dissolved twice in a year, so new early elections can only take place next year. Alexandru Tanase hopes that they will be avoided thanks to the assistance of several communist parliamentarians. At the same time, a neutral figure could be proposed for the role of president, which would suit many. “Well, then it is planned to change the constitution, returning to the people the right to directly elect the head of state,” Mr. Tanase concluded.
As the leader of the Moldovan movement “Equal Rights” Valery Klimenko explained to VN, the “coalition of four” hopes to enlist the support of communist deputies from among the “young reformers”, such as the head of the electoral headquarters of the Communist Party Mark Tkachuk and presidential adviser Oleg Reidman. “Former oppositionists will also try to cleanse the governing bodies of supporters of the Communist Party and weaken the positions of business structures close to it,” Klimenko emphasized. However, he clarified that if the Communists do not give the green light to electing a president and go to early elections, their results will not necessarily be a failure: the new leaders will bear responsibility for the deterioration of the economic situation in the country.
Assumptions about changes in power structures have already begun to be confirmed. On July 31, the Chisinau Court of Appeal released from house arrest the leader of the opposition movement “People's Action”, Sergiu Mocana, who was arrested during the April 7 riots in Chisinau. Mocanu believes that the prosecutor's office did not appeal the decision due to the opposition coming to power.
The former Minister of Defense of Moldova, and later adviser to the head of RAO UES of Russia, Valery Pasat, is also counting on a solution to his problems. In the summer of 2007, he was released from prison, where he spent more than two years on charges of illegally selling weapons. Since then, Pasat has been in Moscow. Last month, the Moldovan Court of Appeal dropped the charges against him, but he has so far been unable to renew his Moldovan passport, which expired in December 2008. As Pasat himself told VN, previously the responsible departments denied him this on the instructions of President Voronin. But now, perhaps, things will move forward, and he will come to Moldova to see his parents.