Translated material
Communist environment
Parliament is being elected again in Moldova
Today, the Moldovan Central Election Commission begins accepting documents necessary for the registration of parliamentary candidates for the early parliamentary elections on July 29. At yesterday's meeting, the Central Election Commission announced the creation of a commission that will determine by drawing lots the order in which documents are received. Another decision approved a list of 28 parties entitled to participate in the elections.For the first time in the history of Moldova, parliamentary elections will be held not on a weekend, but on a weekday - July 29 falls on a Wednesday. The current president of the republic and leader of the Communist Party, Vladimir Voronin, signed a decree on holding elections on Monday after communist deputies approved amendments to the electoral code. They lowered the threshold for a party to enter parliament from 6 to 5%. In addition, the minimum voter turnout at which elections are recognized as valid is reduced from 50 to 33%. If less than a third of voters vote on July 29, then repeat elections will be held two weeks later, the results of which will be counted without taking into account turnout rates.
In a televised address to fellow citizens, Vladimir Voronin blamed the need to hold early elections on three opposition parties. They received 41 out of 101 parliamentary seats in the parliamentary elections on April 5, and then refused to elect a new president. In two attempts made in parliament on May 20 and June 3, the communists were only one vote short of electing their candidate for the presidency, Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanii.
According to Mr. Voronin, after this “the whole country became convinced that people who call themselves the opposition are striving to destabilize the Republic of Moldova, to its economic and political defeat.” The President called on all participants in the upcoming election campaign to show composure and readiness to continue fighting in opposition status in case of defeat. He also promised to do everything to ensure that “the electoral process is even more consistent with the norms and principles of free expression” to the satisfaction of “the most biased international observers.”
The appointment of a new vote was one of the demands of the opposition, which accused the authorities of falsifying the results of the April elections. Then critics of the authorities staged large-scale protests on the streets of Chisinau, which resulted in riots, pogrom and the arson of parliament. Voronin called these actions an “attempted coup,” accused Bucharest of involvement in the unrest, expelled the Romanian ambassador and introduced a visa regime with the neighboring country. The president ordered a full recount of the votes, which revealed no fraud. But now the opposition is unhappy again. They believe that the amendments to the electoral code carried out by the party in power create favorable conditions only for communists - they say that on a weekday in the height of summer, opposition youth will not vote, but disciplined pensioners will come to the ballot boxes to vote for the Communist Party.
As explained by the first vice-speaker of the parliament, Vladimir Tsurkan, the Communist Party, thanks to the adopted innovations, hopes to achieve stability in the country, which has been in a “pre-election” situation since December 2008, and to expand the range of political forces represented in the new parliament. True, until now the communists have advocated “narrowing this spectrum and reducing the number of forces in the Moldovan political arena,” leader of the Republican People’s Party Nikolai Andronik reminded Vremya Novostey. In his opinion, lowering the electoral threshold is intended to ensure the entry into parliament of the Christian Democratic People's Party, led by Iurie Rosca, which in 2005 supported the election of Voronin as president. And the elections are obviously scheduled for a weekday for “the best mobilization of heads of enterprises and departments, who could march with their subordinates in a disciplined manner to the polling stations,” Mr. Andronik ironically says.
“The communists have lowered the electoral threshold because they fear that with a six percent threshold they will not get into parliament,” Serafim Urechean, the leader of the opposition alliance Our Moldova, could not resist joking. In a conversation with VN, he confirmed that the opposition parliamentary formations - the Liberal and Liberal Democratic parties and his own alliance - will go to the elections separately. Previously, the opposition promised to unite and present a united front in the early elections.
Mr. Andronic believes that with the current political polarization of Moldovan society into supporters and opponents of communists, a consolidated performance of opposition forces can bring them more significant success. However, Mr. Urechean is confident that the opposition will be able to create a broad coalition in the newly elected parliament that will form new power structures. In addition to Mr. Rosca, he also named ex-speaker of parliament Marian Lupu among the likely comrades of the communists. Last week, Mr. Lupu announced his resignation from the Communist Party, but he is “capable of playing the role of a cuckoo in someone else’s party nest,” the leader of Our Moldova believes.
Disgraced ex-speaker Marian Lupu may agree to head the electoral list of the Democratic Party, putting forward strict conditions for its leader Dmitry Diacov, who also once headed the Moldovan parliament, Nikolai Andronic suggested in a conversation with VN. According to him, Lupu is capable of attracting the votes of some voters on the right and left, as well as those who did not vote on April 5. However, Moldovan political scientist Victor Josu categorically told VN that “the Lupu train has left.” The expert expects that the upcoming election campaign will be “tougher than the previous one.”