PMR President Smirnov may step down, call early elections

Igor Smirnov, PMR's president, has announced that he'll retire when the country obtains international recognition.

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - An unconfirmed report states that the President of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), Igor Smirnov, will resign before the end of his mandate - and possibly during September 2007. This was reported Monday by an online news source, informacia.ru, quoting an anonymous source which it claims is close to the leadership of the political party "United Russia."

According to the source, early elections will be held in December 2007 with the likely participation of PMR Parliamentary Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk, an opposition leader, as a candidate for the presidency. Native-born Shevchuk, 38, is the leader of the Renewal party which won control of Parliament in an upset victory in late 2005, leaving Smirnov loyalists in a minority.

"United Russia" has a cooperation agreement and political partnership with "Renewal", and will throw its support behind the Renewal candidate, widely predicted to be Yevgeny Shevchuk, an ethnic Ukrainian.

" - It is no secret that Smirnov is willing to leave the presidency," says local resident Yuri Orlov, 43. "But he wants his legacy to be the international recognition of Pridnestrovie as a sovereign and independent state."

Resignation after recognition

In 2006, Igor Smirnov announced that he would retire from politics when the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica obtains international recognition as a sovereign state. He has repeatedly made it clear to voters that this is his #1 goal and that he considers PMR independence to be his life's work.

Pridnestrovie, which is also alternately known under names such as Transnistria and Transdniester, declared independence in 1990; one year before the creation of the neighboring Republic of Moldova. Twice the size of Luxembourg, and with double the population of Iceland, the unrecognized country meets the requirements for statehood under international law.

With Igor Smirnov said to be pondering a September 2007 departure, this would mean that international recognition of Pridnestrovie's 17 years of nation building efforts will be obtained by that date. For political reasons, the recognition is likely to be only partial and not universal, putting Pridnestrovie in the same category as other partially recognized states like Taiwan or Israel.

Even the opposition recognizes Smirnov's work for PMR independence and his leadership role in the unrecognized country's nation building achievements. During a press conference held 20 April 2007, Renewal-leader Yevgeny Shevchuk told journalists that the Smirnov name carries a broader legacy which transcends the individual personality: "For us, the Pridnestrovians, this surname is a symbol," said Shevchuk, recognizing the dedication of Igor Smirnov to independence.

Last December, Smirnov won re-election to the presidency in a field of four candidates. Voters saw him as the candidate most likely to safeguard independence and gave him 8 out of every 10 votes cost. A pro-unification candidate favoring a joint state with Moldova, Andrey Safonov, received less than 4% of the popular vote. The Communist party candidate, Nadezhda Bondarenko, finished second with 8.1%. Yevgeny Shevchuk did not stand as a candidate.

There has been no official statement from Igor Smirnov yet on the news. If no early elections are held, Smirnov's current mandate as president ends in 2011.

See also:
» The man who wouldn't be king
» Igor Smirnov, Pridnestrovie's "Khozyain" President