Party of Communists of Moldova
Vladimir Voronin - President
Politician, secretary general of the Party of Moldova's Communists, president of Moldova (2001, reelected 2005). A native of Corjova, Dubăsari, Vladimir Voronin is a graduate of the Academy of Social Studies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1983) and of the Moscow Academy of Internal Affairs (1991). He served in various positions as a Communist Party activist, including that of first secretary of the Tighina Communist Party organization (1985-1989), and held the rank of major general in the army. He served as minister of internal affairs of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR) (1989-1991). In 1993, two years after Moldova’s Communist Party was suspended, he won the battle for its readmission and successfully registered it as a legal participant in Moldova’s political process.
Vladimir Voronin has headed the Party of Moldova’s Communists (PCM) since 1994. In the 1996 presidential elections, he garnered 10.2 percent of the vote, coming in third. In the 1998 parliamentarian elections, Voronin’s party came in first, but without winning the absolute majority in parliament. In December 1999, Voronin was President Petru Lucinschi’s first choice for prime minister, but his nomination was rejected by the majority of the legislative body. In the 2001 elections, Voronin’s party won the absolute majority in parliament (71 out of the 101 seats) and thus became Moldova’s main political force, constitutionally mandated to elect the president, vote the government into office, and, under certain rules, trigger proceedings to amend the Constitution. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, Voronin’s party garnered only 56 seats, but won electoral support from its main rival, the right-wing Christian Democrat Popular Party (PPCD), backed by the Social Liberal Party, thus ensuring a political compromise that led to Voronin’s re-election as president of Moldova.
Communist political formation reorganized under that name in 1993, two years after the old Communist Party’s activities were suspended in Moldova. Regrouped under the leadership of Vladimir Voronin, Moldova’s communists were granted the right to officially return to the political arena, and a new successor political formation was legalized in 1994. Two Communist formations eventually emerged as a result of the legalization process: the Party of Moldova's Communists / Partidul Comuniştilor din Moldova (PCM) whose candidate, Vladimir Voronin, won some 10 percent of the vote in the 1996 presidential elections, and the Union of Moldova's Communists / Uniunea Comuniştilor din Moldova, a breakaway group of hardliners led by Florin Hristev, which split from the PCM in 1997 and entered an electoral bloc initially called the Bloc of Popular Patriotic Forces, based on an alliance with the Unity-Edinstvo Movement and the Socialist Party of Moldova / Partidul Socialist din Moldova (PSM). It was renamed the bloc of Socialist Unity / Unitatea Socialistă (US).
Voronin's Party of Moldova's Communists came in first in the 1998 parliamentary elections, when it won 40 out of Moldova's 101 parliamentary seats. In the aftermath of the elections, the PCM called for the unification of the leftist political forces in order to defeat what it viewed as the threat posed by national radicals and unionist forces in the new center-right majoritarian coalition, the Alliance for Democracy and Reforms.
In the February 2001 parliamentary elections, the PCM won 71 out of 101 seats. The Parliament easily elected the PCM’s leader Vladimir Voronin as Moldova’s third president. Moldova thus became the first former Soviet state to elect a member of a communist party to the chief executive position. The Party of Moldova’s Communists currently controls the legislative body, the presidency and the government.
In the March 2005 parliamentary elections, the PCM won 56 seats and formed a coalition with the Christian Democratic Popular Party, Democratic Party and Liberal Democratic Party to get enough votes to elect president Vladimir Voronin for a second term in office. According to the PCM’s program, the party “struggles for the socialist development of Moldova with an ultimate goal to build a communist society.” However, starting in 2004, the Party of Moldova’s Communists has been pressured from outside to modernize and it increasingly appears to be moving towards a social democratic platform, while its ingrained pro-Russian, conservative orientation is undergoing changes in rhetoric. They signal an ideological transformation, marked by an inclination to shed its past heritage and a tendency to integrate post-Soviet Moldova in the European institutions and structures.
General Local Elections 2007
465 mandates in the rayonal and municipal councils (41.44%)
4220 mandates in city and village councils (39.73%)
334 mayor mandates (37.35%)
Parliamentary Elections 2005
56 mandates (45.98%)
General Local Elections 2003
615 mandates in the rayonal and municipal councils (54.62%)
5416 mandates in city and village councils (49.96%)
368 mayor mandates (40.98%)
Parliamentary Elections 2001
71 mandates (50.07%)
General Local Elections 1999
118 mandates in the rayonal and municipal councils (37.82%)
2235 mandates in city and village councils (36.61%)
124 mayor mandates (19.71%)
Parliamentary Elections 1998
40 mandates (30.01%)
General Local Elections 1995
206 mandates in the rayonal and municipal councils (16.32%)
848 mandates in city and village councils (8.00%)
43 mayor mandates (5.35%)
str. N. Iorga 11, Chişinau, MD 2012, Moldova;
Tel.: +373 22 23-46-14, Fax: +373 22 23-36-73
E-mail: info@pcrm.md
Web: www.pcrm.md