Moldovan Parliament makes another bid to elect president

The Moldovan Parliament will assemble today, December 7, at 10:00 am, to hold a second attempt to elect the country's president. The only candidate standing is Democrat leader Marian Lupu, supported by the ruling Alliance for European Integration (AEI), Info-Prim Neo reports. The opposition Communists Party hadn't fielded any candidate for the first attempt on November 10 and didn't do it this time either. It also said it would boycott the vote again to prompt snap legislative elections. The AEI holds 53 seats in the legislature and is 8 votes short of electing their candidate without the participation, at least partial, of the Communists. After strenuous negotiations, neither the AEI as a bloc nor the Democratic Party separately managed to convince the Communists of the need to endorse their candidate and thus avoid early parliamentary elections. The Communists seem poised for that eventuality, blaming the ruling alliance for making 'wrong proposals'. However Mihai Ghimpu, the chairman of Parliament and concurrently caretaker president, is confident that the next president will be elected and the disbandment of the legislature will be avoided. A commission was set up to reform the Constitution so that the president can be elected with a simple majority instead of the three-fifths at present. On November 10, Parliament failed to elect a president as the opposition Communists Party staged a walkout.