Chisinau- A constitutional crisis in the former Soviet republic of Moldova took a step toward resolution on Tuesday, with four MPs deserting the opposition Communist Party, which had been blocking election of a new President in the legislature. The exit of four politicians - including ex-ambassador to Russia Vladimir Tsurkan and Moldovan Communist party co-founder Viktor Stepaniuk - marked the first crack in Moldova's Communist Party opposition since a pro-reform majority took control of the legislature in August.
Since then, Moldova's minority Communists have used their 48 votes to block vote Moldova's 101-seat parliament from electing a new president.
By constitutional statute, Moldova's president must receive 61 votes in parliament to be elected. A pro-Europe alliance currently controls 53 votes in the legislature.
"We left (the Communist Party) because they have followed a wrong policy," Tsurkan told the Infotag news agency. "We (four) currently are unaligned MPs, but we are holding talks with the (ruling majority) ... to choose a president."
If the four MPs led by Tsurkan and Stepaniuk join the majority, pro-reform parties in Moldova will still be four votes short of the 61-member majority needed to elect a President.
But Tuesday's public exodus of senior MPs from the Communist opposition was the beginning of the end for Moldova's legislative gridlock, the majority spokesmen said.
"This is the beginning of the disintegration of the Communist Party," said Dmitry Diadkov, chairman of the Democratic Party, one of four political parties currently forming Moldova's parliamentary majority. "Others will follow."
"They (the four ex-Commnist MPs) are scoundrels," said Communist Party spokesman Mark Tkachiuk. "If they disagreed with party policy they should have left the party before elections ... They were elected from a Communist Party slate ... and if they are honourable, they will do so now."
Moldova's Communists have twice bloc-voted without a single break in party ranks to prevent the election of a new president, in November and in December.
By constitutional statute, Moldova's parliament must dissolve itself and hold new new elections if the legislature is unable to elect a president in two attempts.
But Moldova's constitution also forbids new parliamentary elections - now technically mandatory because of parliament's December 7 failure to elect a President - any sooner than one calendar year after the last time parliament was dissolved.
