The Constitutional Court of Moldova has ruled that last month’s presidential election was invalid because a number of deputies had violated secret voting procedures, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Thursday.

The vote for president, who is elected by the parliament, was held on December 16. The court ruled that some parliamentary deputies had shown their ballots on camera to demonstrate their support for parliamentary speaker Marian Lupu. This was a violation of the secret ballot principle and cause for invalidating the election, the court said.

Lupu fell three votes short of the required 61 out of 101 deputies to be elected president. A rerun was to be held on January 15, but the Constitutional Court on Thursday also canceled parliament’s decision to set the rerun for that date. Parliament will now have to set a new date.

The impoverished ex-Soviet republic has been without a full-time president since mid-2009.