CHISINAU, Moldova — Moldovan lawmakers failed to elect Marian Lupu as president Monday after opposition Communists boycotted the vote, plunging the country into a year of uncertainty.
The walkout left the Alliance for European Integration with only the votes of its 53 deputies — eight short of the 61 needed to secure Lupu’s election.
The outcome means that acting President Mihai Ghimpu is likely to dissolve the parliament in the second half of 2010 and call elections in a new bid to end a prolonged political stalemate in the country.
The Communists’ walkout was a repeat of their action against Lupu in a Nov. 10 vote. All 48 Communist deputies left the chamber before the election, despite a pledge by Lupu, a 43-year-old economist, to lead “in a collegiate way” if elected.
Former President Vladimir Voronin was a major player in the walkout. A personal enemy of Lupu’s, he made it clear Friday that he would insist on a boycott and was banking on his Communist Party improving its position in elections next year. “Don’t worry. We will return to the parliament after early elections, and we will win,” Voronin told journalists Monday.
Lupu, a Communist defector, called for constitutional change to reduce the number of votes required to elect a president to 51 from 61, noting that opinion polls showed most people anyway wanted a direct election of the president.
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