Moldova's president Vladimir Voronin said today he would hand over power to his Western-leaning opponents, ending an eight-year era of communist rule in Europe's poorest nation.
A coalition of pro-European parties won a parliamentary election in July and have enough seats to form a government but not to elect a president, which could lead to the continuation of a months-long political deadlock.
"I hand over power to the hands of the new authorities with a heavy heart," Mr Voronin said in a statement in newspapers. "I don't believe that the politicians who united only on the basis of ... smearing their own country and sharing top posts can offer a positive programme to society.”
Mr Voronin, in power since 2001, cannot run for a third consecutive term. Under the constitution, the speaker of parliament becomes acting president until a successor is chosen.
Parliament will have to officially decide that power has been handed over to Speaker Mihai Ghimpu, after which the constitutional court must confirm this decision.
The end of the communist regime leaves Moldova at a crossroads between closer integration with the neighbouring European Union or maintaining ties with former Soviet master, Russia, which provides it with of loans and energy supplies.
The new leadership will have to battle a deep economic crisis in the country of 4.3 million which has borders with EU-members Romania and Ukraine. It will also have to solve the years-long conflict of Transdniestria, a sliver of land populated by Russian speakers that broke away in 1990 fearing that Moldova would one day unite with Romania, with which it shares linguistic and cultural ties.
Parliament now has two months to choose a new president, though it must first form a government and fill other posts. The Alliance for European Integration coalition has between it 53 seats out of 101, eight votes short of what it needs to pass its candidate for president. The communists remain the largest single party and hold the other 48 seats.
The coalition hopes its choice, communist defector Marian Lupu who leads one of the coalition parties, would entice the eight necessary votes from the Communist Party to endorse him.
If it fails, the communists may split the coalition and convince Mr Lupu and his party to rejoin them. This would give the two parties 61 seats - exactly the number needed to put in their own candidate for the presidency.
But so far there have been no signs of a coalition split. Should parliament fail to elect a president within two months, it would have to be dissolved and a new election called, although under the constitution this cannot happen now before February next year.
July's snap election was called under exactly those circumstances as the communists, winners of an April election but one vote short, failed to elect a president in two votes.
Reuters