COPENHAGEN, 16 March 2012 – OSCE PA President Petros Efthymiou today applauded the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova for electing a national president after a more than two and a half year political stalemate in Chisinau.

The parliament today elected Mr. Nicolae Timofti president of Moldova. Timofti, an experienced lawyer, was proposed by the Alliance for European Integration, supported by independent parliamentarians, and received 62 votes. Sixty-one votes were needed to be elected president. The Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova chose to boycott the election.

"We are pleased that a president has been elected," said Efthymiou, who led the OSCE election observation mission in Moldova in July 2009. "We hope the vote in parliament will lead to progress on some of the key OSCE political issues."

Over the years, in meetings with colleagues from the Moldovan Parliament, the Assembly has encouraged a solution to this political crisis, including through visits from the Assembly's Parliamentary Team on Moldova.

"We look forward to working with the new leadership in Chisinau, as well as Tiraspol, in close co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Moldova and the Delegation of Moldova to the OSCE PA, which includes a wide range of political forces," said Walburga Habsburg Douglas, chair of the Parliamentary Team on Moldova.