Referendum fails due to low turnout

Well, September 5 --thought to be a momentus day in Moldova--has come and gone.
Some predicted a turnout close to 50 % of registered voters, but in fact only 30 % turned out and the Constitution states that for a referendum to be valid, at least 33 % had to turn out. Note that the voting is at a school, just like in the U.S. The young woman on the right side with her back to the camera likely is an inspector--to ensure the vote was fair.  No problems were raised, but then it didn't count, so no need to protest the results.
So, while most people who voted (possibly as high as 90 % ) favored direct election of the President, the vote has no effect as the threshold of needed participation was not reached. Why ?
There were probably several reasons.
First, the communist party advocated a boycott of the referendum. Thus, you can see they still have a lot of power here.
Second, a number of people don't like or don't trust the present Interim President and the goverment in general. He is on record with promoting closer ties with Romania.  Would those ties lead to Moldova becoming a part of Romania while losing its indepedence. Probalu not, but there is that concern. in addition, last month there was a report of police brutality in some arrests and the investigation of those incidents is going slow and is not as open as some would like. Soooo, the people are not sure they want to do what this government endorsed.
Finally, there is the struggle between going too fast and too slow. Some say the changes needed here are not coming fast enough an others say changes are being made by those in power without consideration of all aspects of the change.  The result is a standstill--as shown by the referendum results.

I wanted to add one other item to this posting--dealing with transportation. This city has all needed means of transportation available--at very reasonable costs. I'm including some photos of the three main public methods--there are of course many private cars as well.

First are the trams and buses. I'm not sure if your ticket includes a transfer--don't think so--but a ticket on a bus or tram is 2 lei  (there are 12.2 lei to $1.00 currently), so this provides a very inexpensive method of trnsportation.
Second are the vans. These vans run various routes through the city and you stand on a route, flag one down and let them know where on the route you want to get off. Cost is 3 to 5 lei ($ 0.25-0.40), and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of vans roaming the city at all times. This is probably the locals favorite method of getting around.  They go where you want, pretty fast and pretty cheap.
Third are the taxis. They have a number posted on the top of the car and the number is their telephone number. You can call ahead and make sure you have a taxi--or, as I have done on several occassions, you just go to a parked one, tell him where you want to go (ask the cost as well) and you have a private ride. I've taken 5-6 taxis so far and the most I have paid is 50 lei --just over $4.00. Most ex-pats have a couple of favorite taxi numbers- some speak English--and that's how they get around if they don't drive.

One final alternative is walking. In nice weather, as is the case now,   you can walk from one end of the city to the other in 20-30 minutes.  Not to the suburbs--but anywhere in the city.  That's MY FAVORITE method.
Let me know if you have anything you'd like me to write about.  I'm going to focus on students and people in general in the next few blogs. Maybe also the food--especially the city market.  Something for everyone there!

la revedere!

Bill