Moldovans were voting yesterday in parliamentary elections that could shift the former Soviet republic’s focus away from Russia and toward the EU.
One-third or so of Moldova’s 2.5 million registered voters were still undecided last month between the governing Communist Party and center-right opposition parties that seek closer ties with the West.
“If the communists win, the country will fall even more under Russian influence,” political analyst Vitalie Cazacu said on Friday. “If the opposition manages to come to power, the democratic institutions will be strengthened and it will be closer to NATO and the EU.”
PHOTO: AP
Located between Ukraine and Romania, Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest nations with an average monthly salary of 260 euros (US$350). About 600,000 Moldovans work elsewhere in Europe — mainly in Russia, Italy, Spain and Ireland. Last year Moldovans abroad sent US$1.6 billion home — roughly the same amount as the state budget.
There has been some economic growth during the Communist Party’s eight years in power, but international groups have criticized Moldova’s slow progress toward full democracy and a lack of media freedom. Some 3,000 observers were monitoring the vote.
Two-thirds of the country’s population of 4.3 million is ethnic Romanian and thousands hold Romanian passports. Moldova was part of Romania in 1940, but has maintained strong ties with Russia since the Soviet era.
The communists went into the elections with 36 percent support, while the opposition Liberal and Liberal Democratic Parties had 22 percent, the only pre-election poll conducted by the Institute for Public Politics from Feb. 28 to March 14 showed.
The institute gave a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for the poll.
Most analysts predicted, however, that the large number of undecided voters would vote for the center-right.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS