Moldovan parliamentary election: February 24, 2019

[bigic]

Regular parliamentary elections are going to be held in Moldova this Sunday, using the new "mixed" system with 50 out of 101 seats being allocated proportionally (with a 6% threshold for individual parties, 9% for two-party alliances and 11% for 3+ party alliances) and 51 being allocated by constituencies (FPTP as far as I know).

Top 3 (above the threshold in every recent poll)
- Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova: left-wing populist, pro-Russia and socially conservative. It's composed mostly of the former Communists. The party of current president Igor Dodon
- ACUM (Now) (EPP): a centre-right pro-European coalition
- Democratic Party of Moldova (S&D): the current governing party, self-described as centre-left and pro-European

There are two parties that are above the threshold in some recent polls:
- Șor Party (ECR) - there is little information about its ideology, seems to be populist
- Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (GUE/NGL) - a formerly dominant party that lost most of its supporters and many of its politicians to PSRM

In addition to these parties, additional minor parties are running, but their chances of passing the 6% threshold are very small. There are also many independents contesting the constituency seats.

[PSOL]

Which party isn’t run by oligarchs from all these options?

[bigic]

ACUM seems to me that they have the least ties to oligarchs. The leaders of PDM and Sor are oligarchs, and AFAIK there are oligarchs connected to PSRM and PCRM as well.

[bigic]

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1097841406553534464

[bigic]

Live results:
https://pv.cec.md/cec-template-proportionale-rezultate-preliminarii.html

[bigic]

https://www.moldova.org/en/update-parliamentary-election-moldova-results-processing-98-88-minutes/
Results for the proportional constituency (also available on the official site) and the FPTP constituencies (the official site lists just the candidate names, without their party affiliation)

[pilskonzept]

Provisional seat distribution: PSRM 34 (17 PV, 17 FPTP), DPM 30 (13 PV, 17 FPTP), ACUM 27 (15 PV, 12 FPTP), SHOR 7 (5 PV, 2 FPTP). No one else got in. Assuming that PSRM and ACUM won't work together - which makes sense given the ideological difference, but is not exactly certain, I guess - DPM, i.e. Mr. Plahotniuc clearly holds the balance of power. News at 11.

[bigic]

ACUM multiple times criticised both PSRM and PDM, and said that it won't make a coalition with these two parties. PDM after the election now says that it's "willing to talk with every parliamentary party", although AFAIK they criticised both PSRM and ACUM in the campaign.

[kelestian]

PDM + SHOR + Ind = 40 seats. So Plahotniuc can buy only 11 candidates and gain the majority. Wouldn't be difficult for him, last time he bought how much? 30 seats?

[kelestian]

No coalition so far. President Dodon will call new election, if no progress in talks by 21/06

[kelestian]

Coalition talks have failed. New election soon

[kelestian]

Wow, coalition was created in the last moment!
Finally, we have a government without Plahotnyuk (which is a good thing for everyone). ACUM and PSRM will be in the government; prominent anti-corruption activist Maya Sandu will become prime-minister, head of PSRM Zinaida Grechanaya will be speaker of parliament. (President Dodon is also from PSRM)

[TheSaint250]

Why did PSRM, being the largest party, not get the prime minister spot? Also, what made ACUM more tolerable for PSRM, than, say, PDM?

[kelestian]

PSRM already had presidential position.

About PDM - don't know, until recently it looks like coalition will be an alliance of PDM and PSRM. Maybe Dodon hates Plahotnyuk too much. PDM embarassed him at every occasion.


So, situation is not resolved yet: theoretically, coalition talks could last until 21.06, after that president will call new election. But yesterday,  after rumours of coalition without PDM, supreme court (controlled by Plahotnyuk) has announced dissolution of Parliament. They can again stripped Dodon from power for one day and call new election, but US, Russia and EU all support new government, so i don't think Plahotnyuk can win this battle

[bigic]

Well this is an outcome I didn't exactly expect, and it's a coalition of two groupings that have opposite positions on almost everything so there are legitimate questions about what will they exactly do in government, but I guess it's still better than anything involving Plahotniuc and his PDM...

[Aboa]

Constitutional Court stacked by PDM has declared the newly sworn government illegal arguing that the Parliament should've been dissolved on June 7th after 90 days of failing to form a government (Moldovas constitution mandates new parliamentary election after 3 months in such case). They also suspended president Dodon after video of him admitting getting funding from Russia was leaked by PDM controlled TV station and installed former Prime Minister Pavel Filip (PDM unsurprisingly) as an acting president. Filip then dissolved parliament and ordered new elections to be held on September 6.

The parliament hasn't accepted the rulings and has convened emergency session I'd expect street protests too.

[bigic]

Wasn't Pavel Filip the acting prime minister, i.e. he still is if the Sandu government is illegitimate, so can he be the president and the prime minister at the same time?

[Aboa]

Wasn't Pavel Filip the acting prime minister, i.e. he still is if the Sandu government is illegitimate, so can he be the president and the prime minister at the same time?

On previous five occasions Constitutional Court has temporarily suspended Dodon the parliamentary speaker appointed as interim president continued to be speaker simultaneously so I'd guess so.

[bigic]

Pavel Filip (PDM) resigns, Plahotniuc (PDM) flees the country, the Constitutional Court revises its decisions - the political crisis has been resolved in favour of the new government.