The post-Soviet republic of Moldova is finally close to electing a president, ending a three-year-long political crisis caused by a parliamentary standoff, local legislators said.
The ruling Alliance for European Integration nominated Nikolai Timofti, 62, a judge without party affiliation or political background, for the country’s top job, the coalition said on Monday.
The Moldovan president is elected by the country’s 101-seat parliament, where a candidate needs the backing of a minimum of 61 legislators. The vote is expected to take place on Friday.
The pro-Western Alliance for European Integration, which came to power in the impoverished Eastern European republic of 3.5 million in April 2009, defeating the Communists, only has 59 seats in the legislature and has been unsuccessfully struggling to overcome opposition from the Communists to elect a president.
However, in November, three Communist legislators splintered from the party to form a Socialist faction, which said it would back an Alliance nominee if the ruling coalition fields a non-partisan candidate.
The failure to elect a president resulted in the dissolution of the parliament and the snap elections 2010, however the new legislature, also dominated by the Alliance for European Integration, was unable to fill the presidential seat. The latest round of elections in November was canceled due to the absence of suitable candidates.
The Socialists have not commented on the candidature of Timofti, a career judge who is the head of the Supreme Court of the Magistrate, the governing body of Moldova’s judiciary. The Communists, who have been staging street rallies since February, said they will recognize no candidate of the Alliance as legitimate.
