CHISINAU, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Moldova's divided parliament failed to choose a state president on Friday, pushing the former Soviet republic closer to its fourth parliamentary election since 2009.
The ruling coalition, a loose grouping of pro-Western parties, does not have the 61 votes in the 101-strong parliament needed to elect the head of state and opposition communists refuse to compromise.
On Friday, the communists boycotted the vote, refusing to support the only running candidate, parliament speaker and acting president Marian Lupu, a centre-left politician put forth by the ruling Alliance for European Integration.
Three deputies who defected from the communist party last month and might have helped Lupu get elected voted against him.
Official results showed Lupu had received 58 votes.
One of the three defectors, Zinaida Greceanii, a former prime minister under the communists, proposed herself as a compromise candidate last month but failed to win support of the Alliance.
Moldova, one of the poorest nations in Europe, has had no permanent president since communist leader Vladimir Voronin stepped down in September 2009.
This was the current parliament’s first bid to choose a president. It must schedule the next attempt within a month. If that fails, fresh parliamentary elections must be called.
Moldova held parliamentary elections twice in 2009 and again in 2010.
The political stalemate has slowed down reforms in Moldova whose economy relies heavily on wine exports and transfers from migrant labourers working abroad.
It also makes it harder for Moldova to move forward in resolving the conflict with its breakaway Transdniestria region which held its own presidential election on December 11 and on Friday scheduled a run-off for December 25.
The election commission of the unrecognised Transdniestrian republic said Yevgeny Shevchuk, a popular local lawyer, and Moscow-backed parliament speaker Anatoly Kaminsky would face each other after taking first and second place in the poll.
At the same time, it threw out a challenge from Igor Smirnov, who has run the separatist region for more than 20 years, election officials said.
Transdniestria, which broke away after a brief war against Moldovan forces in 1992, has a population of about 500,000 and relies on economic aid from Russia which also keeps about 1,500 troops there.
