Local Elections in Moldova Create Opportunities for Change
The general local elections in Moldova held on Sunday, June 3, brought about the following developments:
1.Overall participation in the elections was low in comparison with previous years, and represented 48%. In Chisinau City participation was even lower (30%)
2.Although still the top-choice of Moldovan electorate, the popularity of the ruling Communist party is declining. (From 40% of mayoral mandates in 2003 to 31% in 2007)
3.The next most popular opposition party is the “Our Moldova” Alliance with 17% of the mayoral mandates.
4.Chisinau City has a very real opportunity of bringing about change by electing a liberal mayor in the runoff elections on June 17. The communist candidate, Veaceslav Iordan, scored 28% while the liberal candidate, Dorin Chirtoaca, came in second with 24% of the total votes.
5.Chisinau witnessed a suprising emergence of a new Liberal Party.
6.Chisinau City council will be multi-partisan, the communists losing the comfortable majority. Out of 51 seats, the communists will have 16 (31%), the liberals – 11 (22%), and Our Moldova Alliance – 7 (14%). (Source)
Comments:
That’s an interesting result. 31+22+14=67%. That means 33% of the people voted for even more parties. In the US, any party besides the Democrats or Republicans getting more than 5% of the vote is exceptionally rare on any level.
The percentages shown represent the distribution of seats in the future municipal council. Another seven parties will get from 4 to 1 seats in this council, which of course will lead to a great deal of fragmentation in decision making.
Hi Lucia, It was really interesting to be an OSCE observer in the elections. I went all around Aneni Noii. Every location is so different, the people are so different. The voting all seemed really on the level. The counting process in the last town we observed was really torturous to watch though. Imagine a committee of nine that only has four competent people and two who are actively being a nuisance. The party observers there were also joking and distracting the board members. Boards definitely need more qualified people- ones who can all be trusted to count! Your breakdown of the results is really helpful.
The big challenge is in managing this communist decline because of conflicts between the non-communist parties. I guess that they will ally in a way or another, but the speed and quality of decision-making will be low.
Kristine, thank you for an observer's view on the local elections.
Klaus, you are right. The biggest challenge from now on for the non-communist parties - in this particular case, the Liberal Party - is to manage to bring everyone else around the idea of change and reform. I have serious doubts regarding their ability to do so effectively. There is real danger that the Liberal Party - in the 'good' tradition of Moldovan democratic parties - will compromise the cause because of some huge egos and unbound arrogance.