Moldova's Parliament fails to elect Marian Lupu as President
Mon 7 Dec 2009
Moldova’s Parliament once again failed today to elect a new President for the country. The only Presidential candidate in the race, leader of Moldova’s Democratic Party (PDM) Marian Lupu, received 53 votes from the MEPs. To elect a head of state a candidate should receive at least 61 votes of the 101 deputies.
Communists' boycott
The Communist party, which lost the Parliamentary elections in July and turned into the main opposition party, rejected to participate in the vote. Leader of the Communist fraction, Maria Postoiko, said from the tribune in the Parliament that the “ruling coalition Alliance for European Integration (AEI) is performing an anti-social policy and is breaking the Constitution”. “The Communists would be committing treason against the population, the voter, the country and even against themselves if they would vote for the candidate put forward by the ruling coalition”, said Postojko. The Communists deputies left the room and dit not participate in the voting. They were all awaiting the results in another room. The voting process was observed only by three Communist deputies, which are in fact members of the committee for the presidential elections.
No early elections on short notice
According to legislation, the interim President –current speaker of Parliament Mihai Ghimpu- is obliged to dissolve the Parliament and announce early Parliamentary elections. At the same time, the Parliament can only be dissolved only one year after the latest elections, that is to say after 16 June 2010. Baring in mind the election campaign, for which not less than 45 days are assigned, Parliamentary elections could only be held next year in the fall. In this case, the deadline for the dissolution of the Parliament and the designation of early elections are not stipulated by law.
At the same time, Ghimpu announced today that “soon the President will be elected, disregard of the boycott by the Communists”. In particular, he pointed out that “the Communists will not achieve their set goal, and there will be no early Parliamentary elections”. Ghimpu did, however, not elaborate on how the Parliament plans to overcome the political crisis.
Last week, Mihai Ghimpu signed a decree on the creation of a constitutional reform commission. The commission will identify the shortcomings of the Constitution and formulate proposals for improving it. Among other things, it is aimed to modify the procedure for electing the head of state.
Sources: Infotag; Moldova Azi; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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