Outgoing Communist President Vladimir Voronin, who wants to remain close to the levers of power after stepping down, has warned Moldovans that a vote against his party on Wednesday will place the ex-Soviet state in danger of extinction.
Voronin dissolved parliament last month and called the election after opposition parties twice thwarted his plan to have parliament elect his handpicked successor as new president.
Wedged between Ukraine and Romania, a European Union member with which it shares ethnic and linguistic links, Moldova depends economically on former imperial master Russia. Moscow also keeps troops in Moldova's separatist Transdniestria region.
During a campaign punctuated by mudslinging, Voronin accused liberal opposition parties, broadly pro-Romanian in outlook, of hoping to see Moldova absorbed by its western neighbor.
Most of today's Moldova was once part of Romania and about 800,000 Moldovans, responding to an offer from Bucharest, have either secured or applied for Romanian citizenship.
Voronin, popular among elderly and rural voters, also accused Bucharest of fomenting the violent protests that erupted after the Communists came first in the last election in April.
Crowds of mostly young people ransacked Voronin's office and parliament. Opposition parties distanced themselves from the violence, but said the vote was rigged.
Hinting at Romania's role in April, Voronin said in an address published in newspapers: "The liberals and their true masters needed ... a nation exhausted by chaos and fear, ready to surrender its statehood and democracy."
"Defend your Motherland!" read Communist billboards scattered across the capital Chisinau.
Voronin, 68, initially linked himself with Russia, then turned to Romania for a time, but is friendlier again with the Kremlin. He cannot run for a third term but has stayed in the picture by securing election as parliament speaker.
Russia backs Voronin and promised a $500 million loan to help Moldova, Europe's poorest country, weather the financial crisis.
COMMUNIST DEFECTOR COULD HOLD THE KEY
Ten parties are in the running and must clear a five percent threshold to win seats in the 101-member assembly.
Voronin's Communists lead with more than 30 percent support in opinion polls against nearly 50 percent in April.
Three opposition parties, more popular among urban voters, have combined support of 30 percent or higher.
Veteran parliamentarian Mihai Ghimpu's far-right Liberal Party has more than 13 percent and advocates "fraternal" ties with Romania, membership of the EU and NATO and a pullout from the Moscow-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States.
The right-of-center Liberal Democratic Party of Vlad Filat has over 7 percent, down from more than 12 percent in April.
The centrist Democratic Party has leapt from 4 to 10 percent, largely because of new leader Marian Lupu who defected from the Communists after expressing disenchantment with Voronin. Analysts say the charismatic intellectual could join forces with the Communists later, if Voronin left politics.
Some say Lupu, campaigning on the slogan "We must end the political war," could act as a broker able to end a left-right deadlock in parliament and could even become president.
Moldavia at crossroads
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Originally Posted by PowerWizard
