Upcoming Moldovan Elections

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! As one of my favorite holidays I am so thankful today for all of you reading my blog and taking an interest in Moldova and Peace Corps, my fellow volunteers and Moldovan family here, everyone back home, and for the little things that makes me smile: brown sugar, letters, and two-stepping!

We had a large Thanksgiving dinner at Peace Corps headquarters in Chisinau last weekend. Four volunteers bought turkeys from the market and killed, cleaned, and cooked them for about 60 of us! This weekend I will be at a second Thanksgiving dinner in the south of Moldova with a smaller group of volunteers and many Moldovans that we invited to join us to share in the fun and food. Plans for Thanksgiving in Chisinau this upcoming weekend was moved earlier due to the elections being held on Sunday, and as a precaution we have been told to stay outside of the capital due to violence that occurred during the last election in April 2009 when protesters stormed the parliament building and presidential palace, protesting the win by the Communist Party.

In Moldova parliamentary seats are elected by the populace, but president is elected by the parliament. Of 101 seats, 61 seats are required to elect a president. Moldova has several parties and no party has won enough seats, or joined with other parties to get the required 61 votes for a president for the last two times parliament has voted. In Moldova if parliament fails to elect a president, they must disband and new elections must be held. After the second round failed, parliament had to wait another year for elections, as written in the law. This September a Referendum was put to vote, that the populace was to vote if they wanted to elect a president by popular vote, but the Referendum failed to reach the minimum turnout required, keeping the government in stalemate. Moldova has been without a president since April 2009, and so the upcoming elections are a very BIG deal here.

The picture attached is of many of the posters plastered around the country right now. Political advertising has been at a high level... there were large concerts put on in several districts throughout the country by one candidate, young people promoting on all the buses at the bus stations, and several lively debates held in almost every village and district center. As a Peace Corps Volunteer we are a-political here in Moldova and in every Peace Corps country, but whatever happens in the government affects policy and in so many ways things we are trying to accomplish, and often how slow or fast many processes take.