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Neighboring Moldova already has a Communist president. Could Transdniestria now get one, too?

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Hoping to prove that communism is not dead in Pridnestrovie, the country's Communist Party will participate in the 10 December presidential elections. Its choice for candidate: Nadesha Bondarenko, the first female to ever seek the presidency of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica.

Nadesha Bondarenko is the editor of the party newspaper Dnestrovskaya Pravda ("Dniester Truth"), a nostalgic throwback to pre-independence when the country was part of the MSSR. She has previously served as a female police officer and is one of the leading members of PKP, as the local Communist Party is called.

" - Nadesha will be the best president PMR has ever had," assures Communist Party chairman Oleg Khorzhan, adding that "She is a crystal clear and honest person. No mud can stick to this selfless, considerate woman. No one can find any kompromat on her," referring to the common post-Soviet practice of blending fact and fiction in files leaked anonymously to the press and created to smear political opponents with an equal mix of halftruths and fantasy.

She represents the moderate wing of the party, a "kinder, gentler kind of Commie," as a foreign journalist puts it. Never mentioning her party's past history of repression, in her speeches she instead focuses on what she sees as the inclusiveness of Communism and its apparent concern for the weak in society.

This is a comeback for a party which was banned for most of the 1990's and which has never fielded a presidential candidate in Pridnestrovie before. The new and softer image is accompanied by hopes that the local Communist Party can pull off an election victory similar to the one which twice gave Vladimir Voronin the presidency of nearby Moldova. Voronin, a card-carrying Communist, was a former general in Soviet Times and a high-ranking politburo member. He is now the president of Moldova and head of a repackaged Communist Party.

Fresh face of Communism

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the formerly all-powerful Communist Parties were banned in many newly independent countries. All over Eastern Europe, their property holdings were nationalized and collaborators with the Soviet regime were barred from standing in elections through much of the 1990's.

Hoping to repeat what British Premier Tony Blair did with his "New Labour" makeover, PMR's Communists are launching a new, improved version of the party of Lenin and Stalin. The dreary Voronin-lookalikes from Central Casting are kept in the background, with the party emphasizing instead its new female candidate and a message of social inclusion. This may appeal to voters who are tired of face of Igor Smirnov, the last of the country's three founding fathers to still hold high office.

" - But don't count on it," says columnist Michael Garner who notes that the personal popularity of Igor Smirnov is still high and that he is seen as the guarantee that Moldova will not be able to quell the hard-fought independence of PMR.
" - And at any rate, if voters want someone new, they are more likely to prefer someone like Yevgeny Shevchuk. As long as he can assure voters that he is not soft of Moldova then he will be a formidable candidate against Smirnov."

Despite Lenin, few will vote red

While Lenin statues may still be present in Tiraspol, they are there for historical reasons, not ideological, say the authorities. The voters seem to be agree: Remembering their Soviet past, and seeing the mess that today's Communists are making of Moldova, few in Pridnestrovie appear eager to vote red again.

Garner doesn't think that the Communists can pull off an upset and take the presidency. But, he says, in politics everything is possible:
" - Sure, this is quixotic. But that was what everyone said about Transnistria's wish to become an independent state, too. And now, after 16 years of real independence, it is just a matter of time before the rest of the world comes around to this fact and makes it formal."

In the December 10 election for president, Nadesha Bondarenko will face off against incumbent Igor Smirnov and opposition candidates Andrey Safonov and Peter Tomayly. Widely tipped as the favorite, Igor Smirnov first got elected in 1990 when he beat his official challenger, the First Secretary of the city’s Communist Party Committee, Leonid Tsurkan, by a 2-to-1 margin. Since then, the Communist Party has been a marginal political force on this side of the Dniester river.

Pridnestrovie - usually known under the names Transnistria or Transdniesteria - declared independence on 2 September 1990. Despite a lack of formal recognition, it meets all the requirements for sovereign statehood under international law. On 17 September 2006, more than 90% of its citizens reaffirmed their wish to continue the country's independence course and overwhelmingly turned down a proposal for unification with nearby Moldova.

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