BerlinPro-European and outgoing president Maia Sandu is slightly leading the count in Moldova’s election, after a tense election campaign marred by Russian meddling and vote-buying. With 94% of the vote counted, Sandu would obtain 51.53% of the votes, against the pro-Russian candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo, who would obtain 48.47% of support at the polls, according to preliminary data from the Central Electoral Commission ( CEC). The difference between both candidates is just over 45,000 votes. The external vote may end up tipping the balance in favor of the pro-European one, as happened with the result of the referendum on October 20 in favor of joining the European Union.
Moldovans mobilized more in the second round, aware that the future of their country was at stake at the polls. The participation rate was 54.8% of the electoral census, higher than that of the first round, held on October 20, when 51.74% of Moldovans with the right to vote went to the polls.
On this second election day, several incidents have been recorded: from fake bomb threats in consulates abroad, to vote buying, including cyber attacks, as reported by the local media.
In the first round, Sandu, pro-Western candidate of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), had obtained 42% of the votes, against Stoianoglo, a supporter of closer ties with Moscow, who obtained 26% of support. The other candidates shared the rest of the votes. Since no candidate obtained a majority, a second round was called.
Coinciding with the first round, Moldovans voted in a referendum by a narrow margin in favor of changing the Constitution to shield their aspirations to become part of the European Union. He won the Yeah in the EU with 50.4%, compared to 49.6% who spoke against it. The difference between the Yeah and the no it was only about 11,400 votes. The foreign vote tipped the balance to the European side.
Despite starting as the favorite in the elections, Sandu, 52 years old, was aware that he did not have an easy time in the second round. The outgoing president, in office since December 2020, feared that Moscow would manipulate the elections, as happened in the first round and in the pro-European referendum.
After the first round, Chisinau and Brussels denounced Moscow’s interference. Moldovan police accused exiled Moldovan-Israeli oligarch Ilan Shor, who lives in Russia, of buying the vote of 130,000 Moldovans through accounts at Russian state bank PSB. Voters would have received around 100 euros in exchange for voting for the pro-Russian candidate and against Moldova’s EU membership. Both Shor and Moscow have denied any interference in the elections and the referendum.
During the presidential debate between the two rounds, Sandu accused Stoianoglo of being the “Trojan horse” of the Kremlin. Stoianoglo boycotted the European referendum as a “sign of protest” against Sandu’s desire to change the Moldovan Constitution.
The former attorney general advocated during the election campaign for a “balanced” foreign policy. Stoianoglo assured that he is committed to the integration of Moldova into the EU and at the same time to strengthen ties with Russia for national interest.
Discontent with the outgoing government
Stoianoglo tried to capitalize during the election campaign on the discontent of many Moldovans with the outgoing government. The mandate of Sandu, a former World Bank economist, has been marked by successive crises, from the covid crisis to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the influx of Ukrainian refugees, passing through the gas crisis.
Russia has used gas as a tool to pressure the Moldovan government. Sandu disconnected Moldova from Russian gas, which had an impact on the pockets of Moldovans. Inflation soared to more than 30% in one of the poorest countries in Europe. Its electricity remains heavily dependent on the Russian-owned Cuciurgan power station in the breakaway region of Transnistria.
Moldova, a country bordering Ukraine and Romania, applied to join the EU in March 2022, a month after the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In December 2023, Brussels opened accession negotiations for Moldova, which gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
