In 2009 Moldova Communists could return to opposition. Info-Prim Neo Analysis

The general local elections showed that the Party of Communists’ rating has dramatically decreased and, if the state of things would further develop the same way, it is very likely after the next parliamentary elections for the present ruling party to return to opposition, political analyst Arcadie Barbarosie, director of the Public Policy Institute, told Info-Prim Neo. [Stake: Chisinau City] According to the analyst, the local elections are always of a special significance, as they represent a preparation for the parliamentary elections. Particular attention was given to Chisinau City, which the fight was quite tough for, especially under the existing myth of Moldova: whoever controls the capital city controls to a great extent the country. When analysing the way the political parties reacted to the challenges of the present polls, we notice that, practically, all of them had candidates for Chisinau, and less for the district councils or for the first level ones. [The candidacy is to blame] In certain pre-election opinion polls, the voters were asked in what circumstances they would change their political option. About 30% stated that they would change their option if the party they would support, would propose a candidate they didn’t like. According to Barbarosie, this fact was brilliantly demonstrated in Chisinau. The specialist supposes that the results of the elections for the office of general mayor of the capital city were influenced by this factor, as well. A fair percentage of the traditional communist electorate didn’t turn up for the voting, as they didn’t agree on the candidate fielded for general mayor’s job. [The communists heading back to opposition?] Arcadie Barbarosie thinks that the tendencies revealed in the opinion polls and confirmed in the local elections will further persist. Moldova’s Party of Communists is losing its popularity and there are more factors explaining the rating decrease. Some analysts insist on the so-called factor of tiredness: the electorate would look for new faces, a fact capitalised by Dorin Chirtoaca. At the same time, possibly some policies promoted by Moldova’s Party of Communists didn’t please a good part of the population, Barbarosie also states. Resulting from the public opinion polls, the factors explaining the governing party’s declining popularity are the price rises, which doesn’t cover the incomes’ increase, the high inflation rate, the uncertainty as regards the children’s future, the unemployment, and poverty whose rate increased in the last 2 years. The analyst says that, considering the way the state of things is developing in Moldova, it is very unlikely for the communists to manage till 2009 to recover the loss, on the contrary, it seems that this year Moldova will know a less significant economic growth as compared to the planned one, especially in agriculture where, due to drought, the decline will deepen, which will affect even more the population’s trust in the ruling party. This way, we can expect in 2009 that the Communist Party will pass into opposition in the Parliament, Arcadie Barbarosie concluded.