Written by Thomas Gassler Monday, 06 September 2010 21:26

In the constitutional referendum of 5 September the Moldovans voters had it in their own hands. With their vote for a direct election of the president they could have abruptly finished an apparently never-ending story without an officially elected president in the Republic of Moldova since April 2009. 33.3 per cent of the voters had to tick a „yes" at the referendum in order to change the constitution. However, not even 30 per cent went to the ballot and thus the referendum failed.

The „Alliance for European Integration (AIE)" that launched the referendum, starts a causal research one day after the disaster. According to the party leaders of the Alliance Vlad Filat, Mihai Gimpu, Marian Lupu and Seafim Urechean the failed referendum was the fault of the voters, the media and the law. For the NGO Promo-LEX that observed the referendum the Communist Party „that threatened voters on the in villages and small towns on the countryside" were responsible for the poor attendace at the referendum. However, the first statement of interim president Mihai Ghimpu on the news channel Publika right after the announcing of the results sounded much more self-critical, „The referendum was not priority of all four parties of the AIE. This shows once more that we do not know how to make politics."

So, the president still has to be elected by a 3/5 majority of the government. The first step will be the dissolution of the current government Alliance for European Integration, new election will follow later this year. The Communist Party, that boycotted the referendum, is more than happy about this result. „All Moldovan voters showed that they have an excellent democratic understanding. And now I want to see the government dissolved. Immediately", said ex-president Vladimir Voronin with a portion of cynism at the press conference of the Communist party. The next election will show if there are any winners at all in Moldova. The elections could finish once more in a stand-off between the pro western-parties and the Communists. And the story continues...