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Moldova's new acting president calls snap election

Gleb Garanich, REUTERS | Moldova's former president, Igor Dodon, attends an anti-government rally of the country's Socialist Party in central Chisinau, Moldova, November 18, 2018.

Moldova’s newly appointed acting president Pavel Filip on Sunday dissolved parliament and called snap elections, as a political crisis rocks the ex-Soviet country.


Filip signed a decree dissolving parliament and calling snap elections in Moldova for September 6 after the Constitutional Court earlier Sunday suspended pro-Russia president Igor Dodon and named Filip, who is the acting prime minister, as acting president.

Filip told a briefing that Dodon had refused to sign a decree dissolving parliament after the Constitutional Court on Friday judged that the assembly should be dissolved and new elections held.

The Constitutional Court then on Sunday morning relieved Igor Dodon of his duties as president and appointed former prime minister Pavel Filip as interim president, a statement said.

The court explained its decision by the fact that Dodon had not dissolved parliament as mandated by an earlier Constitutional Court verdict.

Moldova’s parliament on Saturday had approved a new government combining pro-Russia and pro-European forces in a bid to end a political crisis sparked by February elections.

No party won a clear majority in the chaotic polls, throwing the country nestled between Ukraine and Romania into political uncertainty.

Moldova has been dogged by political instability and corruption, especially since a scandal known as the “theft of the century” emerged in 2014-2015 in which $1 billion (€880,000), around an eighth of its economic output, was pilfered from three banks.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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