Moldova report: Communists and Democrats will form ruling coalition

Dec 8, 2010, 13:20 GMT

Chisinau/Kiev - Moldova's Communist and Democratic parties are to form a ruling coalition that will force pro-Europe parties into the opposition, according to a Wednesday news report.

Vladimir Voronin, leader of the Communist Party, and Marian Lupu, head of the centre-left Democratic Party, already have agreed to join forces in parliament, the news website strieazilei.md reported.

The website is independent and one of Moldova's most popular news sources.

The Communist-Democrat agreement will give the presidential office to Lupu, the powerful parliament speaker job will go to Voronin, according to the report.

Other government offices will reportedly be shared between the two parties with Communist nominees receiving 70 per cent of appointments and the Democrats 30 per cent.

Officials at both parties reached by telephone had no immediate comment on the web news report.

Voronin and Lupu met for an initial round of coalition talks on Tuesday. Both later told reporters their two parties' political priorities were nearly identical, but denied they had already agreed to a formal alliance.

Voronin's pro-Russia Communists are on track to control 42 seats, and Lupu's Democrats 15 seats in parliament, according to the results of a November 28 parliamentary vote.

Were those two parties to form a ruling coalition, Moldova's two largest pro Europe parties, the Liberals and Liberal Democrats, would be in the opposition with a collective 44 parliament seats.

Moldova has been locked in constitutional crisis for more than two years because parliament has been unable to assemble the needed 61 votes in the 101-member legislature to elect a new president, forcing repeated new elections.

The November 28 vote was the third parliamentary election in 18 months. Legislation passed by parliament cannot, by constitutional statute, become law without a presidential signature.

A Communist-Democrat alliance would by itself lack sufficient votes to elect a president, and break the long-running deadlock.

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