Veaceslav Ionita: The recent elections proved that Moldova loses colour and is no longer reddish

The accomplishment of the June 3 local general elections is that Moldova loses colour and is no longer reddish, while the Party of Communists is the big loser of the recent polls, analyst Veaceslav Ionita told Info-Prim Neo. In his words, if until recently all the district councils were exclusively controlled by the ruling party, after the June 3 elections PCRM will manage to keep the majority in a half of these councils at best. The explanation is that this time the message of the communists was less popular among voters, says Ionita. Referring to Chisinau Municipality, the expert thinks that people voted either for well-known parties or for well-known persons. Veaceslav Iordan received approximately the same number of votes as PCRM, while the exorbitant resources used in his campaign didn’t bring him any extra votes. Moreover, in 2003 PCRM collected 100 thousand votes, in the 2005 summer campaign – some 80 thousand, in the fall campaign – 65 thousand, while in the current polls the ruling party got 60 thousand votes, although the voter turnout rate was higher in these elections. Speaking about the candidate of the Liberal Party Dorin Chirtoaca, the expert said that he was able to poll the same number of votes as in the elections of 2005, despite the fact that he had to compete in the first round with other young candidates. In Ionita’s opinion, Chirtoaca obtained high results due to a large category of electors who are bored with “obsolete” political parties. When asked to make forecasts about the second round, the analyst said that both the candidates have poor abilities to attract new votes, given that more than a half of the electorate of the also-rans in the first round voting will not take part in elections, and the biggest majority of those who will come, will vote for Chirtoaca. Yet, the PL candidate is also in critical need for additional votes. He could obtain them by negotiating with other political parties and, what is more important, by trying to persuade the first-round abstainers, as Chirtoaca has a broader room for manoeuvres than his rival. If he takes dynamic and concrete steps in this regard, he could have all the chances to win. “I can easily picture Chirtoaca’s victory, but I cannot see how Iordan could win”, Veaceslav Ionita concluded. According to the recent preliminary poll results, Veaceslav Iordan received roughly 28% of the vote, and Dorin Chirtoaca – more than 24%.