European Forum

Moldova's presidential referendum fails due to low turnout

Moldova's referendum on whether the country's president should be elected by popular vote was declared invalid today (6 September) as the voter turnout has not reached the necessary 33.33 percent with nearly all votes counted, the head of the Moldovan Central Election Commission said. Yevgeny Shtirbu said that only 30.98 percent of eligible voters have gone to Sunday's polls. The pro-Western coalition government campaigned for the change as a way to break the political deadlock that has left the country without a full-fledged president for 18 months.

Early elections
Several hours earlier, when turnout figures showed that the referendum would most probably fail, Moldova's interim president Mihai Ghimpu said that in line with Moldova's law, if the referendum did not pass, he would be forced to dissolve the parliament and announce early elections. Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Filat said "there is no tragedy," adding "we should act further in accordance with the law." Should the referendum fail, he said he would push for early parliamentary elections to be held in the near future. Ghimpu said that, in case of early elections, his Liberal Party will have its own candidate for the presidency. Two other parties in the ruling coalition have also suggested their candidates will seek the presidency. Ghimpu has blamed the low turnout on the opposition Communist Party, which has called for a boycott of the referendum. Communist leader Vladimir Voronin described it as a "real vote of censure against the current regime."

The impoverished former Soviet republic has been divided between the Communists, who had dominated the political scene for most of the decade, and the pro-Western ruling Alliance for European Integration (AEI) coalition of four parties, who seek closer ties with the EU. Parliamentary elections in April and July last year left no political force strong enough to secure the 61 votes in the 101-seat chamber to elect a new president. The government has said that if the referendum passes, it will hold presidential and parliamentary elections in November.

Sources: Ria Novosti; RFE/RL