Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Moldova
Moldovan citizens will hit the polls this Sunday to elect their MPs against the backdrop of political tensions.
Corina Cristea, 27.11.2014, 13:11
This Sunday’s parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova are crucial for this country’s European aspirations. The Communist Party ranks first in terms of voters’ choice in the latest opinion poll, with 19.6% of the votes, followed by the Liberal-Democrats with 17.2%, the Democrats with 14.2%, the Homeland Party with 8.7% and the Liberal Party with 8.5%.
The competition is tight, and Communist leader Vladimir Voronin, a former president between 2001 and 2009, already announced that if his party won the elections, he would not give up Moldova’s Association Agreement with the European Union signed this June. One month ago Voronin had told a television station that Moldova had signed the agreement without consulting Russia beforehand, and that the agreement should be nullified.
According to Radio Chisinau, tensions are running high in the last days of the campaign, all the more so with the recent discovery by special forces that members of a radical group were preparing to stage protests and violent attacks after the elections of November 30.
The Police and the Prosecutor’s Office have conducted searches in several cities, where they discovered large weapons and ammunition stashes, significant amounts of money, as well as the blueprints of certain state institutions targeted by the attacks. The two authorities have announced that the Antifa crime group has already started undermining public order in the Republic of Moldova as early as this spring.
The result of the upcoming parliamentary election will also reflect on Romania. The Government announced all Moldovan students studying in Romania who wish to cast their votes would be able to travel to cities venuing polling stations by train free of charge. The Ministry of Transport is to cover the full costs of travel.
On December 1 Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu will pay an official visit to the Republic of Moldova. The President elect Klaus Iohannis will also visit Chisinau on Friday to hold talks with Liberal-Democrat leader Vlad Filat. Iohannis will also have an informal meeting with president Nicolae Timofti. Before his visit, in a Facebook post, Iohannis said Moldovan citizens needed to vote for the democratic and European values. Moreover, Iohannis believes that all factions supporting the European path of Moldova should join forces to achieve this goal.
