The way in which the election campaign started in single-member constituency No. 38 Hâncești and the resonant events that preceded the campaign point to a general tendency: “everyone against the Party of Socialists”. Many of the declared opponents of the PSRM announced their intention to combine forces against the informal leader of the Socialists, President Igor Dodon. For example, the Action and Solidarity Party initiated the anti-Dodon campaign, inviting the pro-European and unionist parties to sign a nonaggression pact, given that they have a common opponent, President Igor Dodon, who can capture the state institutions as an agent of influence of the Kremlin and as an agent of the country’s federalization. The electoral context of the new parliamentary elections of March 15, 2020 is described on the portal alegeri.md that was launched by the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT under the aegis of the Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections.
ADEPT executive director Igor Boțan, in a news conference at IPN, said that in parallel, there is the Political Movement “Union” that aims to merge all the unionist parties into one political movement. It launched the campaign “Stop Dodon!”. At the other pole, there are parties with appreciable electoral support on the political left, including the declared non-system ones, such as the Our Party, the Shor Party, and the Party of Communists. They constantly state their very negative attitudes to the PSRM and President Igor Dodon.
Igor Boțan also said that these examples prove that the Party of Socialists partially does not have political allies and is somehow isolated, receiving blows both from the right and from the left. Even in the absence of allies, the PSRM has rather powerful positions and has a multitude of resources, enjoying the support of about 30% of the people. The Democratic Party could become an important ally of the PSRM, but for now this party remains neutral in relation to the Socialists. Since November 2019, the declared interest of the PDM has been to support the technocratic, minority government of Prime Minister Ion Chicu that was appointed by the PSRM and President Dodon without taking part in governance. However, it is highly improbable that the Democratic Party will remain in this situation of uncertainty for a long period of time.
The ADEPT director also said that another aspect of the electoral context is the non-interaction of the former components of the ACUM Electoral Bloc – the PAS and PPPDA. The PAS decided to field its own candidate for MP, while the PPPDM threw its support to independent Grigore Cobzac. “For the first time, we witness these separate actions of the two parties and it is interesting to see their tactics for the upcoming presidential elections,” stated Igor Boțan.
Seven candidates are running in the new parliamentary elections in single-member constituency No. 38 Hâncești. In the February 24, 2019 elections, there were four candidates running in this constituency.
