Moldova's ruling party wins parliamentary majority

Moldova’s governing pro-Western Communists won a parliamentary majority in national elections, but fell short of taking enough seats to re-elect President Vladimir Voronin, according to near final results released today.

With nearly 99% of the votes counted, Voronin’s Communists had some 46% of the vote in Sunday’s election, down from the 50% the party polled in the 2001 elections, the Central Electoral Commission said.

The centrist Democratic Moldova Bloc won about 28% of the vote, almost double the 14 % won by bloc member Braghis Alliance in the previous election.

The centre-right Popular Christian Democratic Party won nearly 10% of the vote, slightly more than it got in 2001.

Only the three parties, out of 15 vying for 101 seats, managed to get enough votes to enter Parliament.

Under Romanian election law, the remaining 16% of the vote – split between 12 parties that did not get enough votes to win parliamentary seats – would be redistributed among the three parties that won seats.

The Communists were projected to win 56 seats, which would be enough to form a government.

However, they would fall five seats short of the minimum 61 parliamentary seats, or three-fifths majority, needed to choose the president. Parliaent has 45 days to choose the president, after which it must hold new parliamentary elections.

The Communists expressed muted satisfaction, but members said they would wait for the final results, expected on Wednesday, before deciding on any possible political alliance.

“I have to be happy in the name of our party that we got this result,” said Victor Stepaniuc, who headed the Communists’ election campaign.

The Communists were expected to try to lure some defectors from the more moderate Democratic Moldova Bloc, which was projected to have 33 seats in the new parliament.