Pro-Western Communists were favored to remain in power as Moldovans voted in parliamentary elections yesterday, but the party faced a challenge from centrists who prefer closer ties with Moscow.
Some 2.3 million Moldovans are eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections. Polls opened at 7am and were due to close at 9pm. More than half the electorate needs to vote for the elections to be valid.
Opinion polls gave the Communist party of President Vladimir Voronin about 46 percent support. The party has led the country since 2001 through four years of economic growth, but Moldova remains Europe's poorest country.
PHOTO: AFP
"I voted for the Communists because they look after the old people and they doubled my pension," said Ana Vasentciuc, 70, who has a monthly pension of just 437 lei (US$35), after she cast her ballot early yesterday.
Formerly pro-Russian, the Communists have made a complete turnaround and now support closer ties to the EU, which 65 percent of Moldovans favor.
Voronin fell out with Moscow over the future of the Russian-speaking separatist region of Trans-Dniester. He rejected a Russian-backed proposal in 2003 to federalize Moldova by giving Trans-Dniester statehood status, and he is now closer to the EU and to Romania's reformist President Traian Basescu.
The elections have raised tensions between Moldova and Russia, which fears it is losing influence in the former Soviet Union after the election of pro-Western leaders in Georgia and Ukraine last year.
Fifteen parties and alliances are contesting 101 seats in parliament. The lawmakers will then choose a president, with 61 votes in favor needed for the appointment.
``Voronin has raised pensions and salaries ... he has proved that he's interested in helping ordinary people,'' said 68-year-old Andrei Taru.
``It doesn't bother me that he was friends with Russia in the beginning and now he's friends with the Europeans and Americans,'' he said.
For the first time, exit polls will be released after the polls close, with early results shortly afterward. Final results are expected Wednesday.
Some 770 foreign observers, including 150 from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, will monitor the elections.
Nine special stations will be opened near the border with Trans-Dniester so the separatist region's 700,000 residents can vote. Trans-Dniester authorities have refused to allow any polling stations on their territory.
Russia put 1,800 of its peacekeepers on alert in the separatist region Saturday to prevent incidents, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Voronin's administration has been criticized for being heavy-handed with the opposition and tightly controlling the state media.
His party is challenged by a centrist alliance, the Democratic Moldova Bloc headed by Chisinau Mayor Serafim Urechean, which is pro-Moscow. The Bloc has about 16-20 percent support in opinion polls and has been bolstered by the Communists' deteriorating relations with the Kremlin.
The Popular Christian Democratic Party, which wants Moldova to join NATO and the EU, has been the Communists' main opponent in recent years. It is credited with about 10 percent voter support.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image