A landlocked republic of the extreme northeastern Balkans, Moldova borders Ukraine on the north, northeast, and southeast and Romania on the west. Area: 33,700 sq km (13,000 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.) 4,372,000. Cap.: Chisinau. Monetary unit: Moldovan leu, with (Oct. 11, 1996) a free rate of 4.61 lei = U.S. $1 (7.26 lei = £1 sterling). President in 1996, Mircea Snegur; prime minister, Andrei Sangheli.
With two rounds of presidential elections--on November 17 and December 1--Moldova experienced electoral fever through most of 1996. The campaigning began when in July 1995 Pres. Mircea Snegur quit the ruling Agrarian Democratic Party of Moldova (PDAM) to form the Party of Revival and Accord of Moldova. Subsequently, Snegur, Prime Minister Andrei Sangheli, and Parliament Chairman Petru Lucinschi engaged in a presidential race that became increasingly personal. Snegur repeatedly threatened to dismiss Sangheli’s Cabinet for incompetence.
Snegur won the support of the right-wing parties, including the Christian Democratic Popular Front and the Moldovan Party of Democratic Forces, but this could not counterbalance the leftist coalition around Lucinschi, which included the PDAM, the socialists, and the communists. Lucinschi eventually won the election with 54% of the popular vote. His victory could bring a change in Moldova’s policy of rapprochement with the West. Perceived as pro-Russian, Lucinschi was the ethnic Moldovan who had held the highest position in the hierarchy of the now defunct Communist Party of the Soviet Union; he was Central Committee secretary.
This article updates Moldova, history of.