Moldova - Rise to power

Voronin entered Communist Party politics in 1971 after serving briefly as the manager of a provincial bread factory. His studies in the Soviet Union raised his profile there and he began winning postings to a series of elevated positions within the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. As the socialist bloc was disintegrating in 1989–91, Voronin held a position within the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, the precursor entity to the current independent state of Moldova. During the transitional years immediately following independence, Voronin held various party posts but was not elected to Parliament until the 1998 elections in which his party won a plurality. He was then elected president of the Communist Party in Parliament. After the parliamentary changes instituted in 2000 eliminating the directly elected presidency, Voronin, as head of the largest party in Parliament, would almost certainly be named president if the Communists won a majority in the 2001 elections. After their resounding victory

(taking 71 of the 101 seats), Voronin was indeed named president.