Moldovan Communist Party lawmakers walked out of parliament in Chisinau while a crucial vote to elect a new president was held. Marian Lupu, the candidate of the Alliance for European Integration, obtained only 53 votes, short of the 61 needed to have him elected as head of state.
By leaving parliament, the Communist lawmakers, marshalled by former President Vladimir Voronin, repeated a strategy they had already used on 10 November, preventing communist dissidents from voting for Lupu. According to Moldova's constitution, after two failed attempts to elect a president the country now heads for early parliamentary elections.
Lupu, 43, an academic and former communist, represents the centre-left and his coalition partners are hoping his political standing will attract some traditional communist supporters.
He has also won backing from Russia (see EurActiv 13/10/09), which provides Moldova with crucial gas supplies, by emphasising the need for a "balanced" foreign policy and opposing any moves to join NATO.
Before the vote, Voronin, who loathes Lupu and regularly heaps public abuse on him, said his party was looking beyond Monday's vote to an early parliamentary election in 2010. "Unfortunately, we do not see any other alternative," he told journalists on Friday.
The Alliance, which broke the communists' eight-year grip on power in a July poll, has set its sights on taking Moldova into mainstream Europe.
Reversing the communists' policy, it has agreed a $590 million bail-out programme with the International Monetary Fund.
It says it wants to upgrade institutions and business practices to bring the country into line with European Union standards to make Moldova more appealing to foreign investors.
The country suffers from widespread corruption, its media has a tradition of toeing the line of those in power, and the judiciary, police and state security apparatus are politicised.
It also has an unresolved conflict in Transnistria - a strip of land on its eastern border, populated mostly by Russian speakers, that broke away in 1990. Home to the country's industry, Transnistria is demanding independence. But Chisinau will give it only autonomy.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
