Referendum in the Republic of Moldova

The referendum was meant to replace the old procedure by which Parliament appointed the president by a new one, the people's vote.

Despite opinion polls, the turnout in the referendum stood at only 29% of the people with the right to vote.

For the referendum to be validated at least one third of voters was supposed to go to the polls.

Therefore the old rule according to which the president is elected by Parliament remains in force.

But the balanced representation of political parties in Parliament does not allow the pro-Europeans to impose their option regarding the election of the president.

The Moldovan Constitution stipulates that, if the procedure of electing the president fails twice, which has already happened, Parliament is dissolved and early elections are held.

Which means that, in a similar context, the new Parliament risks having the same fate as the current Parliament, so the idea of holding early elections each year wouldn't be surprising at all.

The interim Moldovan president and one of the leaders of the ruling pro-European coalition, Mihai Ghimpu, believes that the reasons why the referendum was tantamount to a big disappointment, are: the communists, the lack of coordination within the coalition and the citizens' indifference.

In turn, PM Vlad Filat has evoked the demobilisation of the electorate caused by the certainty given by vote-turnout surveys.

On the other hand, the former Communist president, pro-Russian Vladimir Voronin, whose party called for boycotting the referendum, did not hide his joy at the referendum's failure and considered it a 'logical' follow up of events.

Analysts in the Republic of Moldova, quoted by news agencies, believe that the result of the referendum is indicative of the low level of trust in the pro-European leaders and of the fact that the society continues to remain polarised.

According to the Moldovan analysts, the fact that hundreds of thousands of Moldovan citizens went to Europe to escape the hardships they were facing at home was one of the causes entailing the referendum's failure.

As regards the political future of the Republic of Moldova, the poorest European state, Mihai Ghimpu said that the top priority of the pro-Europeans now was the passing of a new Constitution.

(Radio România Internaţional, Serviciul în limba engleză).