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The Constitutional Court considered as grounded the request of the electoral competitor electoral the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova and ordered recount of votes cast in the whole country in early parliamentary elections of November 28, 2010. President of the Court, Dumitru Pulbere, said the minutes made available to representatives of electoral competitors immediately after elections are different from the minutes posted on the website of the Central Electoral Commission. According to the Electoral Code, in case of disagreement with the preliminary voting results, until the confirmation by the competent bodies (Constitutional Court in case of the parliamentary elections), the electoral competitors may request such bodies to order the recount. Recount may be ordered for grounded reasons affecting the outcome of elections and distribution of mandates and has to be held within 7 calendar days from the date of adopting the decision on vote recount. The recount shall be carried out by the same electoral bodies, and the general recount procedure shall be approved by the Central Electoral Commission. After the elections of April 5, 2009 the Constitutional Court also ordered the recount at the request of then acting President, Vladimir Voronin. The recount found no major discrepancies, about 1,000 ballots of those initially declared invalid were attributed to some electoral competitors.

Leaders of the parties that got into the parliament and some parties that didn’t pass the electoral threshold commented on the recount decision, adopted by the Constitutional Court:

• PLDM, PDM and PL leaders consider that recount will ensure clearer results of the parliamentary elections held on November 28 and will remove suspicions about the legality of election.PL leader hopes that recount may cause the loss of two seats by PCRM, which is sufficient to ensure the election of president by democratically oriented parties;
• PCRM representatives were satisfied with the decision, but recognize that it will not bring about big changes, the number of errors being not so important as to change the overall election results;
• leader of “Our Moldova” Alliance (AMN), which did not get into the Parliament (gained about 2% of votes), believes that the elections were falsified, and after the vote recount AMN could enter the Parliament, and this will significantly change the future of Parliament.

CEC representatives have not commented on the Constitutional Court’s decision, but declared they would have to enforce it, although this involves supplementary expenditures and mobilization of additional resources (in April 2009 the recount has cost the public budget about 7 million lei, and the recounting results didn’t influence the distribution of MP mandates).

President of European Parliament (EP), Jerzy Buzek, who was in official visit to Chisinau, declared that in just one year, Moldova has made impressive progress on its European pathway and should be encouraged to remain firm on this position. EP President confirmed that elections in Moldova were free and transparent, and from this point of view the Republic of Moldova is a model in Eastern Partnership of European Union. By this visit, the EP President shows continued support provided by EU to Moldova and its citizens, it wants to encourage political stability in the country, to support the unity among political leaders and to encourage them to find a solution to the constitutional and institutional deadlock. Buzek reiterates that establishing the future governing coalition is a matter of domestic politics in Moldova and totally depends on its citizens, and the EU and the European Parliament do not want and will not influence decisions in this regard.

In a joint press briefing, Vlad Filat, Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, and Jerzy Buzek, European Parliament President, announced that the European Union will give Moldova a grant of 90 million euros for investment in infrastructure.

Several NGO groups have launched declarations and calls regarding the future ruling alliances in the Republic of Moldova:

• A group of organizations directly pointed out to the need to align in a coalition PLDM, PDM and PL (IDIS “Viitorul”, APE, Moldovan-Lithuanian Foundation “CSIE”, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, “Acces-Info”, Transparency International — Moldova, Association of Journalists Economists, Press Freedom Committee, Ecological Movement of Moldova, Centre for Legal Resources, Regional Development Agency — Habitat, National Association of Trainers);
• Another group of NGOs called on political parties that have accessed into the Parliament to conduct negotiations on forming ruling coalition based on previous commitments on approaching the EU and progresses made until now (Promo-Lex Association, API, CJI, CNTM, Contact Centre, CPD, APEL, East-European Foundation, Memory Centre and Acces-info Centre);
• Civic Forum “Pro Europe” calls on liberal-democratic parties that entered into the parliament to comply with the voters’ will and to restore the European Integration Alliance composed by PLDM-PDM-PL and to avoid the return of communists to governance (the initiative is supported by Val Butnaru, President of Media Trust Jurnal; Valeriu Saharneanu, President of Moldovan Journalists Union; Veacheslav Tibuleac, Director of radio station Vocea Basarabiei; Roman Mihaes, President of the Association “United European Moldova”). Civic Forum “Pro Europe” announced that it will hold rallies in the following three Sundays in the Square of Great National Assembly, sa an awareness raising attempt focused on voters.

Leaders of PLDM, PDM and PL had the second joint meeting, which they assessed as a positive one but different enthusiasm:

• PLDM and PL leaders declared it is a step towards creating a governing alliance and that negotiations began; PLDM leader, Vlad Filat, said the original offer on sharing the main state positions could be modified so that PDM would get the position of the Speaker and from that position to run for the head of state;
• PDM leader, Marian Lupu, mentioned that the exchange of views focused on the functionality of governance mechanisms and he cannot say it is a process of negotiations, since the issues of principles were not resolved.

Leaders of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova and Democratic Party discussed the possible organization of the Government of a possible centre-left coalition. According to declarations made after the meeting by PCRM leader, Vladimir Voronin, the future Government could also include 16 ministries; the nominal proposals were made for positions and it was decided to accept people who are professional and not based on political criteria.

Vladimir Voronin hinted that PCRM could support the candidate for presidential position proposed by a possible centre-right coalition if the person would be outside of the Parliament and political parties. Another option would be to amend the Constitution in Parliament, in Chapter concerning the presidential election, based on the PCRM draft.