Moldovan election aftermath

Following their defeat in Sunday’s Moldovan parliamentary election, opposition parties have called off their plans to bring people out onto the streets of Chisnau to protest the result.  Instead, they plan to work through parliament to prevent Vladimir Voronin from being re-elected President.

Leaders of both opposition parties said Monday that they intended to boycott Parliament’s presidential vote in a bid to force a new election, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. It was unclear, however, whether their statements were simply a negotiating tactic.

"Voronin will not be supported by my bloc," Chisinau Mayor Serafim Urechean, leader of Democratic Moldova, said at a news conference.

Iurie Rosca, leader of the Christian Democrats, argued that "conditions were unequal" in the election, Itar-Tass reported. But both leaders said they had dropped plans for postelection street protests, the news agency said.

The bottom line has to be that the public simply don’t feel cheated enough to come out onto the streets.   

See my previous post for more thoughts on why opposition parties are unlikely to be able to unite to prevent Voronin’s re-electiont.

The Communist Party, meanwhile, plans to re-brand itself. 

Voronin, who previously suggested that his party might change its name, on Monday said the Communists would reorganize along the lines of European parties.

"A special-task commission is already working on this issue," he said.

It’s a smart move, of course.  The name just gives out the wrong vibes to the world, especially to the EU.  The possession of a functioning free market is one of the key standards that any state aspiring to membership must meet and, although the Moldovan Communist Party of today promotes the free-markets and privatisation, the EU could never justify accepting a Communist state (even if it is in name only) into its club.  The EU is packed full, however, of ‘social-democratic’ parties.