Moldova to decide its future direction in election

CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldovans vote in a snap parliamentary election on Wednesday, facing a choice between the ruling communists advocating Russia as a strategic partner or their liberal opponents seeking better ties with the West.

Also at stake in Moldova's second election in less than four months are ties with Romania, which shares a common language and history with the ex-Soviet state. Relations sank to an all-time low under outgoing Communist President Vladimir Voronin.

Ten parties are contesting the election, with 2,000 polling stations polls open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. (0400 GMT to 1800 GMT) throughout Europe's poorest country.

The Communists finished far in front in the April 5 election, but the results triggered violent protests by young people who ransacked the president's office and the parliament building. Voronin accused Romania of fomenting the violence.

Polls this time credit the Communists with 30 percent of the vote or slightly more, against just under 50 percent in April. Two liberal opposition parties -- the Liberals and Liberal Democrats -- are forecast to win a combined 20 percent.

The centrist Democratic Party is expected to see its tally rise to 10 from 4 percent, its standing boosted by new leader Marian Lupu, a communist defector now disenchanted with Voronin.

The urbane intellectual may hold the key to forming a coalition in the new chamber. Analysts suggest he could join forces with the Communists, provided Voronin quits politics.

Voronin is obliged to step down after two terms. But his plans to keep a hand in politics were thwarted when the opposition twice prevented -- by a single vote -- his handpicked successor from being elected by parliament.

Voronin dissolved parliament and called the early election.

ILL-TEMPERED CAMPAIGN

In an ill-tempered campaign, the Communists denounced Romanian support for the opposition and suggested their rivals even had no objections to support from the criminal underworld.

Liberals accused the Communists of skewing the election by involving state institutions and through biased media coverage.

The campaign exposed a huge social gap between Voronin's voters in impoverished villages and among ethnic minorities -- and the mostly young, urban electorate of his liberal opponents.

Many of Voronin's supporters are state employees or those nostalgic for the Soviet past when Moldova enjoyed hefty handouts from Moscow and was glorified as "the flourishing orchard of the Soviet Union."

Liberal supporters seek closer ties with the West where hundreds of thousands of Moldovan migrants work.

Russia, which keeps a military contingent in Moldova's pro-Moscow separatist Transdniestria region and supplies over 90 percent of the nation's energy, backs Voronin and promised $500 million in loans to help the country in the global crisis.

In Romania, President Traian Basescu openly supports the opposition and public interest in the vote is high.

"Tomorrow's election can decide the fate of our brothers living beyond the Prut river," Bucharest's Realitatea TV said in a report on the poll.