Local Elections in Moldova: Wind of Change?

Local elections are scheduled to take place in Moldova on June 3. There are over 930 local governments in this 4-million-people country. Moldovans will elect the local council and mayors in the city/town/village of their residence. Local non-governmental (Coalitia 2007) and international organizations such as OSCE have already begun monitoring the electoral activity throughout the country.

The stakes of these elections are high and the outcomes – important for the future of the country as there is a slight hope for change in power. The Communist Party has been comfortably in power in the majority of local governments since the previous local elections of May 2003 when they gained 41% of mayoral mandates. The opposition parties – united in a social-liberal electoral structure called Our Moldova – gained 21 %, and the independent candidates – 17.5 %. Right before the 2003 elections, the mostly-Communist Parliament, Communist central government and President have initiated the highly controversial reform of the 2nd tier of government.

The Communist Party still has a very strong hold on power in Moldova. Although I would like to see the opposition parties grow much stronger than they are today, the results of the upcoming elections are hardly going to be much different than those of the previous ones.