Moldova parliament fails to elect president at 1st attempt

A candidate nominated by the ruling Party of Communists, acting Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanii, received 60 votes. No deputies voted for Stanislav Gropa. Some 60 deputies of the Communist faction participated in the elections. The opposition boycotted the voting. The opposition leaders said they would seek dissolving the parliament this way. The repeated presidential elections will be held not later than in 15 days. If two attempts to elect the president are abortive before June 7, the parliament should be dissolved. The Communists won 60 out of 101 seats in the parliament at the April elections. It is necessary to receive 61 votes to elect the president, so the Communist faction should come to terms with the opposition, which has 41 seats. To avoid the dissolution of the parliament the authorities initiated the negotiations with the opposition. The Communists offered to the opposition the posts of the vice-speaker and the chairpersons of four out of ten parliamentary committees. The Communists may also offer to the oppositionists some posts in the executive authorities, a source in the ruling Party of Communists told Itar-Tass on Wednesday; Kazinform cites Itar-Tass. See www.itar-tass.com for full version.