| MOLDOVA: PROSPECTS OF PRESIDENT’S ELECTION 
ARKADY BARBAROSHIE,
Director of Institute for Public Policy, Chisinau Moldova’s power centre is gradually moving from the President to the Parliament and the Cabinet of Ministers. This means that the Moldovan President’s non-election does not influence the Republic’s relations with the EU, Russia, Transnistria, etc.
The President ceased to be such an effective figure as he was under the Communists. Here is a typical example – the IMF has signed an agreement according to which a credit should be issued to Moldova. The agreement was signed with the Cabinet since Moldova has no President. In other words, the IMF confides in the Cabinet and believes that it is effective and can cope with this task.
Chisinau is going to start negotiations about its associate membership of the EU, and Brussels will negotiate with the Moldovan Cabinet.
The Cabinet may be so effective because the ruling “Alliance for European Integration” has created a mechanism allowing them to postpone early parliamentary elections till any date that would be convenient for them. Moldova’s Constitution does not read clearly when early parliamentary elections should be held.
The “Alliance for European Integration” takes advantage of the current situation forcing the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova to vote for Marian Lupu when electing President. There is no telling whether the Communists will vote for him or not.
Many Communists realize that they will not be in the saddle even if early elections are held. The Communists’ approval rating falls and they have lost their administrative resource. The “party in power” factor exists when some electors vote for such a party, but the Communist Party is not the party in power any more.
So, I am carefully optimistic about President’s election. This situation is not very important in terms of building relations with the EU, Rumania, Russia and solving the Transnistrian issue, although the issue is complicated enough as many things depend on the Russian rather than Transnistrian authorities. But, first and foremost, Russia should work out its strategy towards Moldova.
November 6, 2009
|
