Election results annulledVladimir Voronin(acting)
The incumbent president, Vladimir Voronin, was term-limited and was elected to become speaker of the Parliament of Moldova in early May 2009; the ruling Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) nominated Zinaida Greceanîi.
[1] As the PCRM held only 60 of 101 seats in parliament, but 61 seats were required to elect the president, at least one dissenting vote from the opposition was required; the opposition had announced, however, that it would boycott the election, thus forcing repeated parliamentary elections.
[3] On that day, the election was postponed to 3 June 2009; the PCRM claimed that it was due to Ascension Thursday falling that day, while the opposition criticised the PCRM's attempts to delay the election.
[4] On 2 June 2009, the former parliamentary speaker Marian Lupu (who had been expected to become prime minister in a musical chairs-like shift of offices among Voronin, Greceanîi and Lupu) defected to the opposition, stating that he had realised that the PCRM was undemocratic and could not be reformed from within.