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Pro-Europe party wins the legislative majority in Moldova

Moldova's governing pro-Western Communists won a parliamentary majority in national elections, but fell short of taking enough seats to re-elect President Vladimir Voronin, according to near final results released yesterday.

With nearly 99 percent of the votes counted, Voronin's Communists had some 46 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, down from the 50 percent the party polled in 2001 elections, the Central Electoral Commission said.

The Communists have led the country since 2001 through four years of economic growth, but Moldova remains Europe's poorest country.

Formerly pro-Russian, the Communists have made a complete turnaround and now support closer ties to the European Union, which 65 percent of Moldovans favor. The elections have raised tensions between Moldova and Russia, which fears it is losing influence in the former Soviet republics after the election of pro-Western leaders in Georgia and Ukraine last year.

The Communists' deteriorating relations with the Kremlin have bolstered the Democratic Moldova Bloc, the more moderate, pro-Moscow alliance headed by Chisinau Mayor Serafim Urechean.

The bloc won about 28 percent of the vote, almost double the 14 percent won by bloc member Braghis Alliance in the previous election. The center-right Popular Christian Democratic Party won nearly 10 percent of the vote, slightly more than it got in 2001.

The Communists were projected to win 56 seats, which would be enough to form a government. However, they would fall five seats short of the minimum 61 parliamentary seats, or three-fifths majority, needed to choose the president. The Communists expressed muted satisfaction, but members said they would wait for final results expected tomorrow before deciding on any possible political alliance.

"I have to be happy in the name of our party that we got this result," said Victor Stepaniuc, who headed the Communists' election campaign.

The Communists were expected to try to lure some defectors from the Democratic Moldova Bloc, which was projected to have 33 seats in the new parliament.
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