Moldova’s newly appointed acting president Pavel Filip on Sunday dissolved parliament and called snap elections, as a political crisis rocks the ex-Soviet country.
Filip told a briefing that Dodon had refused to sign a decree dissolving parliament after the Constitutional Court on Friday judged that the assembly should be dissolved and new elections held.
The Constitutional Court then on Sunday morning relieved Igor Dodon of his duties as president and appointed former prime minister Pavel Filip as interim president, a statement said.
Moldova’s parliament on Saturday had approved a new government combining pro-Russia and pro-European forces in a bid to end a political crisis sparked by February elections.
No party won a clear majority in the chaotic polls, throwing the country nestled between Ukraine and Romania into political uncertainty.
Moldova has been dogged by political instability and corruption, especially since a scandal known as the “theft of the century” emerged in 2014-2015 in which $1 billion (€880,000), around an eighth of its economic output, was pilfered from three banks.