Moldova's presidential elections postponed
On Thursday noon, the Moldovan Parliament's Permanent Bureau voted for proposing to the legislative forum to postpone the presidential election scheduled initially for Friday, October 23.
Following a thorough discussion of the situation, the Bureau arrived at a conclusion that there exists a ground for such decision: the legislation in force does not stipulate precisely whether it is sufficient to have only one presidential candidate, or election must necessarily be held on an alternative basis.
By the application submission deadline of October 17, the ad hoc electoral commission had registered only one candidate - Democratic Party Chairman Marian Lupu, nominated by the ruling Alliance for European Integration.
The Communist faction, having 48 mandates in the 101-seat Parliament, refused to nominate a candidacy of their own, while the governing alliance refused to nominate one more, alternative candidate in order "to not make a laughing-stock of ourselves", when they all will cast their 53 ballots only for Lupu.
The Parliament convened for a plenary meeting at 1600 local time today to consider an agenda that contained 3 drafts - on the election of the head of state, on changing the Permanent Bureau's personal composition, and on combination of posts by parliamentarians. And about one hour later, the forum's majority voted for postponing the presidential election until a later date, and decided that an election date will be officially announced on November 3.
Before that, however, the chairman of the parliamentary ad hoc electoral commission Ion Plesca submitted a review of the election-related situation - namely that on October 7 the Parliament appointed a presidential election date for October 23, and that by the application submission deadline of October 17 the Communist had registered only one candidate for presidency - Democratic Party Chairman Marian Lupu.
Bearing in mind the precedent of year 2000 when the Constitutional Court explained that elections have to be held only on an alternative basis, the electoral commission stated that the Moldovan legislation does not provide for a clear regulation concerning whether president may be elected on a non-alternative basis. For that reason, the commission offered the Parliament to put off the election so as to first amend the legislation and then to elect a head of state.
The opposition Communist faction accused the majority Alliance for European Integration of their reluctance to nominate a second candidate, on which Ion Plesca retorted the Alliance did not wish to repeat the Communists' recent electoral practice, when "thirty MPs nominated a candidate, who did not receive a single ballot during voting. How do you think one should look on all this?"
After a stormy debate, the majority AEI voted for election postponement. The Communists did not vote, and only stated the Alliance MPs are "just marking time, for you have no strength to elect a president".
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