The Moldovan parliament on Tuesday failed to elect a new president as the only candidate, Democratic Party leader Marian Lupu, did not accumulate the required 61 votes in the 101-seat parliament, Xinhua reported.
Lupu, proposed by the governing Alliance for European Integration, was favored by 53 coalition deputies. That was eight short of the required 61 votes in the 101-seat parliament, according to local reports.
The Communist Party refused to participate in the vote, declaring it wouldn't contribute to establishing "a regime of antisocial and anti-European right-wing dictatorship" in the former Soviet republic.
Lupu promised in his speech before the vote that if elected president, he would continue "progress in the political, social and economic sectors, in the education system, in the cultural life, etc."
Referring to foreign policy, Lupu opted for increasing the number of Moldova's friends "in Moscow, Washington, Kiev, Bucharest, both on the East and West."
A second round of voting should be held next month. If the new vote fails, too, the parliament would risk being dissolved.
The new parliament was elected in a snap election on July 29 and is made up of 48 representatives of the Communist Party, 18 from the Liberal Democratic Party, 15 from the Liberal Party, 13 from the Democratic Party and seven from the Our Moldova Alliance. The latter four parties in August formed the governing Alliance for European Integration.