Referendum in the Republic of Moldova in 2010
The 2010 referendum in the Republic of Moldova took place on September 5, 2010. Citizens were called upon to vote on a constitutional amendment that would have meant reintroducing direct elections to the state president. A large majority of those who voted voted for the constitutional amendment. However, the referendum failed because the turnout was too low.
prehistory
In the Republic of Moldova, direct elections for the president took place in 1991 and 1996 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the country's subsequent independence. Since then, the head of state has been elected by the Parliament of Moldova with a three-fifths majority . The close result of the parliamentary elections in April 2009 meant that under the given circumstances the election of the new head of state failed. A new election in July 2009 did not solve the stalemate either, so that again new elections had to be scheduled for autumn 2010 . In order to prevent the state crisis from continuing after the new elections, the Moldovan government decided to try to reintroduce direct elections for the state president before the parliamentary elections.
Question
"Sînteți pentru modificarea Constituției care să permită alegerea Președintelui Republicii Moldova de către întreg poporul?"
"Do you agree to a constitutional amendment that would allow the election of the President of the Republic of Moldova by the whole people?"
Positioning the political forces
While the ruling parties supported the constitutional amendment, the opposition communists opposed it and called for a boycott of the referendum, with the intention of lowering the turnout below 33% and thus invalidating the referendum.
Mood in the run-up to the referendum
According to a poll, the results of which were published in August 2010, 74% of Moldovans wanted to take part in the vote. A large majority of 91% said they would vote for the constitutional amendment. In retrospect, however, the quality of this survey must at least be questioned about the willingness to participate in the vote.
Ballot and result
In the course of the first few hours of the ballot, there was a slow development in voter turnout, which was in contrast to the survey results published before the election, which indicated that the population was very interested in the referendum. Around 7 p.m. only a good quarter of those eligible to vote had voted. Post-election surveys, which also asked about the nationality of voters, showed that voter turnout among the country's largest ethnic minorities, Russians and Ukrainians , was significantly lower than among Moldovans , who make up the majority of the Republic of Moldova.
Overall, 87.83% of the voters voted for the referendum and 12.17% against. Of the approximately 2.7 million eligible voters, a good 818,000 took part in the vote. The turnout was only 30.07% and thus below the required turnout of 33%. The constitutional amendment has therefore failed.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Result of the 2010 referendum. E-democracy.md (Romanian, Russian, English)
- ^ Communist Strength Slowly Waning Ahead of Moldovan Referendum and Elections . Eurasia Daily Monitor
- ↑ Over 90% of the people will vote “in favor” at the referendum, poll . moldova azi
- ↑ Publika.md
- ^ Democracy.md
