TĂNASE v. MOLDOVA JUDGMENT 5 26. The total number of Moldovans who have obtained Romanian citizenship since 1991 is unknown as the Romanian government have never made this information public. However, it has been estimated that between 95,000 and 300,000 Moldovans obtained Romanian nationality between 1991 and 2001. On 4 February 2007 the President of Romania stated in an interview that there were some 800,000 Moldovans with pending applications for Romanian nationality and that his government expected the number to reach 1,500,000, of the total of 3,800,000 Moldovan citizens, before the end of 2007. 27. As to the number of Moldovans holding a second nationality other than Romanian, this figure is also unknown. However, it appears to be considerable and it seems that Russian nationality is the second most popular, after Romanian. On 16 September 2008 the Russian Ambassador to Moldova stated in a televised interview that there were approximately 120,000 Moldovans with Russian passports on both banks of the Dniester River (i.e. in the whole of Moldova). 28. The Moldovan Government indicated in their observations before the Chamber that one-third of the population of Transdniestria had dual nationality, while a communist member of parliament (MP), Mr V. Mişin, advanced during Parliament’s debates concerning Law no. 273 (see paragraphs 78-81 below) the number of 500,000 as an approximate total number of Moldovans with dual nationality. C. Overview of the political evolution of Moldova prior to the electoral reform in 2008 29. During the last decade and prior to the elections of 2009, the Communist Party of Moldova was the dominant political party in the country with the largest representation in Parliament. 30. Besides the Communist Party, there were over twenty-five other political parties in the country with considerably less influence. Their exact number was difficult to ascertain because of constant fluctuation. Because of their weaker position, very few of them managed to clear the 6% electoral threshold required in past legislative elections to enter Parliament. 31. In the 2001 elections the Christian Democratic People’s Party was the only party aside from the Communist Party, from the twenty-seven parties participating in the elections, which succeeded in clearing the electoral threshold alone by obtaining some 8% of the vote. Six other parties merged into an electoral bloc (a common list) and in this way were able to obtain some 13% of the vote. The Communist Party obtained some 50% of the vote and, after the proportional distribution of the wasted votes, obtained 71 of the 101 seats in Parliament. 32. In 2002 the electoral legislation was amended. The 6% electoral threshold for a single party was retained but a new 9% threshold was