Moldova holding referendum on reverting to direct presidential election.

.Citizens of Moldova go to the polls Sunday to vote in a referendum
that will decide on whether or not the country should scrap the current
system of electing the President by parliament and revert to the direct
presidential elections abolished in 2000.
The authorities hope the referendum will put period to the dragged-out
political crisis that has been paralyzing political life in the country
for more than a year.
The situation was pushed off the balance in April 2009, when the
political forces then making up the liberal democratic opposition accused
the Communist Party, which held the reins of power at the time, of having
falsified the results of the parliamentary election.
Organized actions of protest rapidly grew over into mass riots and
rampages, the participants in which broke into the parliament building and
the presidential residence and crushed to pieces everything they came
across there.
The parliament has been unable to elect the head of state since then,
as the effective law demands that no less than three-fifths of all the MPs
- sixty-one out of the total 101 - should vote in favor of a candidate to
make the election valid.
The situation remained largely unaffected either by a runoff
parliamentary election in the summer of 2009 and the changes in the layout
of political forces.
While previously it was the liberal democratic parties that would
boycott the voting for the president, the Communist Party and they
themselves have exchanged the roles by now but the result remains the same.
The convocation of parliament that emerged after the July 2009 runoff
has failed to elect a president and it should be dissolved under the
Constitution, yet Acting President Mihai Ghimpu, who is simultaneously the
speaker of parliament, says he will take a decision on the dissolution if
the referendum is deemed valid.
To attaint the latter result, the officials have slashed the required
turnout to one-third of registered voters.
"After the Constitution Court recognizes the outcome of the
referendum, I'll sign a decree on the dissolution of parliament and on
appointing the date for an early parliamentary election, which will be
held on the same day as the presidential election, or November 14," Ghimpu
said.
In the meantime, the Communist Party has urged the voters to boycott
the referendum. Political opposition says the ruling Alliance for European
Integration plans keeping the current composition of parliament intact.
-0-kle