Moldovan President Maia Sandu said the double election on Sunday, the 20th of October, was under “unprecedented” attack from foreign interference after preliminary results showed the presidential election would end in a run-off vote, but despite Russian pressure, Moldova’s European Union (EU) membership, balancing between East and West, looks set to go ahead, reports Reuters.
With 97.66% of votes counted on Monday, 50% of Moldovans had voted in favour of EU membership, according to results published on the website of Moldova’s Central Election Commission.
Meanwhile, Sandu, with 97.7% of the vote counted, won 41.91% of the vote in the presidential election, while her main rival, former Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, won 26.32%.
As none of the presidential candidates will reach the 50% threshold, a run-off election will be held on the 3rd of November.
In a statement to the Moldovan people, Sandu said there was “clear evidence” that criminal groups working with foreign forces hostile to Moldova’s interests had invested “tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda” to keep Moldova “trapped in insecurity and instability” and were trying to buy 300 000 votes in what she called “fraud on an unprecedented scale”.
“Their aim was to undermine the democratic process. Their intention was to spread fear and panic in society… We are waiting for the final results, and we will react with firm decisions,” she said.
Fugitive Moldovan tycoon Ilan Shor, who is accused of interfering in the elections, congratulated voters on rejecting the EU referendum despite accusations of voter bribery, which he claims is legal given that he openly on social media offered to pay Moldovans to persuade others to vote a certain way.
Prior to the vote, the Moldovan authorities took down websites that they believed were spreading disinformation and announced that they had uncovered a Russian-led programme to train Moldovans to riot and opened criminal proceedings against Shor’s associates.
Sunday’s referendum was aimed at defining EU accession as a constitutional objective.
Polls before the vote showed that the majority of Moldovans support EU accession.
At least five presidential candidates called on their supporters to either boycott the referendum or vote “no”, claiming that the referendum was a ploy to increase Sandu’s electoral lead.
Stoianoglo, whose candidacy was backed by the traditionally pro-Russian Socialist Party, boycotted the referendum, saying that Moldova needed a new government and that if he won, he would improve relations with the EU, Russia, the US and China.
Reacting to the poor results of the referendum, Oazu Nantoi, Sandu’s PAS legislator, attributed the referendum result to Russia’s “hybrid intervention”, stressing Moldova’s vulnerability to Putin’s influence.