Partial poll results show decline in ruling party’s popularity

The candidates of the Party of Communists remain the top-choice among voters nationwide, but their popularity is lower than in the local elections of 2003, show the preliminary results after a count of about 60% of the ballots in the polling stations in Moldova. According to partial data presented by the Central Election Commission, the communist candidates for mayor received 30.8% of the votes, as against 40% polled in 2003. Almost 17% of the electors voted for the candidates for mayor on behalf of the “Moldova Noastra” Alliance Party, compared with about 15.7% of the ballots gained by the candidates of the “ASLMN” Electoral Bloc in the previous elections. The candidates of the Democrat Party are the following, with 11.7%, as against 6.1% in 2003, the Christian-Democrat People’s Party – 8.3%, compared with 4.9% in 2003. The candidates of other parties obtained less than 5%. For the post of councillor in the district and city councils, the candidates of the Party of Communists obtained 36% of the ballots (48% in 2003), “Moldova Noastra” Alliance – 15.4% (20%); Democrat Party – 10% (7.7%); Christian-Democrat People’s Party – 7.8% (8.9%); Liberal Party – 5.9%, and other parties received less than 5%. For the councillors in the town and village councils, the candidates of the governing party were voted by 35.1% (45%), “Moldova Noastra” Alliance – 18.6%, as against 20.5% in 2003, Democrat Party - 13.1% (8.6%), and the Christian-Democrat People’s Party – 9.2% (6.3%). Other parties polled less than 5%. By 10.30 hrs, only the data from Balti and from the districts of Basarabeasca, Edinet and Ocnita were entirely processed.