Moldova’s election authorities said on April 21 that a vote recount confirmed the victory of the Communists Party in the April 5 parliamentary polls and the distribution of seats in the country’s 101-seat legislature.

The recount was ordered by outgoing president Vladimir Voronin after opposition parties claimed massive vote-rigging by the ruling Communists and thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital,  Chisinau. Although mostly peaceful, on April 7 hundreds broke into the presidency and parliament buildings, setting fire to furniture outside the two buildings.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have declared the elections fair, but opposition parties have said that the fraud was carried out in drawing up the voters’ lists and allowing Communist supporters to cast multiple votes in various voting precincts, which OSCE observers could not check without access to the final voting lists. Voronin has ruled out a review of the lists and Moldova’s constitutional court has refused to give the opposition parties the opportunity to verify them.

"The difference between the recount and original count is not significant," central election commission (CEC) secretary Iurie Ciocan told reporters after a CEC meeting on April 21. With 49.5 per cent of the votes, the Communists will get 60 seats in parliament, while three opposition parties that campaigned for economic reforms and closer ties with the European Union will receive the rest.

The seat distribution leaves the ruling party one vote short of the majority needed to elect the country’s new president. Voronin cannot stand for re-election after serving two terms, but has said that he had no intention to quit politics and was widely expected to follow Vladimir Putin’s example by becoming the country’s next prime minister. Under Moldova’s constitution, Voronin had to step down two days after the elections, with outgoing parliament speaker Marian Lupu taking over as the interim head of state, but he is yet to do so.

Legal trappings
Opposition leaders, who expect the court to declare the results valid, have already said they would appeal against the decision. Even if the court turns down their challenge, the opposition parties can still force early elections should they present a united front once the parliament meets, with presidential elections the first order of business.

In Moldova, the legislature elects the president and the Communists are one seat short of the qualified majority of 61 votes needed to secure a win for its nominee. Should parliament fail to do so, new elections have to be held from scratch, including the drafting of new voter lists, the opposition’s main gripe with the April 5 polls.

Knowing his party needed only several votes to keep its hold on the position, Voronin said on April 5 that he expected there would be enough MPs willing to compromise and vote for the as-yet-unnamed Communist nominee "for the sake of stability". Now that the Communists need just one opposition MP to defect, local observers have said that early elections were unlikely.

In a bid to ease some of the tension caused by numerous reports from international non-governmental organisations and journalists of alleged post-election abuses by Moldovan authorities, Voronin asked for an amnesty for the majority of more than 200 people detained after the protests. The only exception would be repeat offenders and the organisers of the rally, which Voronin has repeatedly described as an attempted coup, orchestrated by neighbouring Romania. Romania denies the charges.

OSCE had "verified some claims" and was seeking access to jails and an audience with the chief prosecutor to follow up allegations of abuses, the organisation said in a confidential report, quoted by Reuters. The claims included alleged ill-treatment of detained protesters, inhumane detention conditions, torture, media censorship and improper expulsion of foreign journalists.

Despite the abuse claims and the tense relationship with European Union member Romania, Voronin is still expected to be invited to attend the Prague summit in early May, at which the EU plans to launch its Eastern Partnership that would pursue establishing closer political and economic ties with six former Soviet states, Moldova included.