You're reading: Moldova makes new bid to elect president, tension high

CHISINAU - Three defectors from Moldova's communist opposition said on Friday they would vote for a presidential candidate presented by the ruling pro-Western coalition, raising prospects of an end to a three-year impasse in one of Europe's poorest countries.

The head of state is elected by parliament in Moldova and the announcement of support by the three defectors meant the coalition should now get 62 votes in balloting on Friday, one more than the 61 necessary to secure his election.

Members of the special forces in riot-gear ringed the parliament building the centre of the capital Chisinau and took up positions in side-streets after the powerful communists threatened to disrupt the vote.

The small ex-Soviet republic has been without a full-time president since mid-2009.

After three years in which the ruling Alliance for European Integration failed to get one of its own leaders elected in successive votes, the Alliance nominated a veteran judge with no political allegiance to try to break the deadlock.

When the parliament session began early on Friday, it was still not clear if the three communist rebels, who now call themselves socialists, would back Nicolae Timofti – the only candidate – for the post.

But after Timofti, 63, had presented his programme, Igor Dodon, the leader of the three-man faction, said they would vote for him in the secret ballot that began later on Friday.

"The election of a president is better than an aggressive campaign for new parliamentary elections which will not solve the political crisis. We must put an end to the crisis and get down to work for the good of the country," he told the parliamentary session.

Taking a swipe at the communists, whose ranks he and two others have quit, he said: "That is how an opposition should act and not choose to stage marches and street demonstrations."

In his speech, Timofti pledged to maintain strategic ties with the United States, Russia and Germany, as well as strive for a settlement of the separatist Transdniestria problem on Moldova’s territory.

"Moldova must become a bridge between East and West from which it can only win," said Timofti, a judge since 1976 and head of Moldova’s Supreme Magistrate Council, a governing body of the court system.

As long as there were no sudden defections within the three-party Alliance itself, whose members hold 59 seats in the 101-seat parliament, it seemed likely Timofti would be elected in the vote later on Friday.

At the last minute, the authorities brought the session forward to morning from afternoon to stymie plans by the communists to stage pickets and rally supporters outside parliament.

APRIL 2009 PROTESTS

The building was the scene of violent protests in April 2009 after a parliamentary election in which the communists won 50 percent of the vote, enough to allow them to select a new president and amend the constitution.

The now ruling Alliance emerged from the ensuing chaos, pushing the communists into opposition.

Wedged between Ukraine and European Union member Romania, Moldova looks to wine and vegetable exports and inflows of cash from thousands of Moldovans working abroad to sustain an economy that is heavily reliant on Russian energy imports.

Despite its poverty, Moldova, which has a population of 4 million, is pressing for association status with the EU and has received plaudits from Brussels for its economic reform plans.

But the presidency deadlock has delayed the necessary regulatory and judicial reforms.

A new leadership could also help resolve the status of Transdniestria, a strip of land on Moldova’s eastern border controlled by pro-Moscow separatists for the past 20 years.

Transdniestria, which has no international recognition as an independent territory, itself elected a new leader last December, increasing prospects of a long-term settlement.