Moldova’s pro-EU party pulls ahead of pro-Russian opposition in high-stakes election

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Moldova’s ruling pro-European Union party pulled comfortably ahead of its Russian-leaning rival in a crucial parliamentary election as final results trickled in on Monday, a relief for the government as it seeks to keep the country out of Moscow’s orbit.

With around 93 per cent of votes counted, the Party of Action and Solidarity, or PAS, had 47 per cent versus 27 per cent for the Patriotic Bloc, which opposes closer ties with Brussels.

While still short of a majority in the 101-seat chamber, the preliminary count gets PAS closer to the threshold than many political analysts had expected and could make coalition-building less fraught than feared.

And with more ballots to come in from overseas voters, who tend to favour integration with Europe, it remains possible PAS will get over 50 per cent in the final tally.

Holding on to its parliamentary majority would allow the party to keep Moldova’s EU bid on track, a process requiring years of concerted legislative efforts.

The buildup to what PAS leaders have called the most consequential election in Moldova since independence was marred by accusations of foul play by both sides up to and on the day of polling.

President Maia Sandu’s government warned Moldovans that Russia had attempted to sway the vote through widespread disinformation and vote-buying.

Stanislav Secrieru, Sandu’s national security adviser, said election infrastructure and government websites had come under cyber attack, and that fake bomb threats were called into polling stations in Moldova and abroad.

Moscow has denied meddling in Moldova.

On Sunday, Patriotic Bloc co-leader Igor Dodon, a former Moldovan president, called for protests in front of parliament on Monday, claiming that Sandu was planning to annul the vote. He did not provide evidence.

Authorities will watch closely to see if Dodon follows through on the threat, and what crowds he can command if he does.

In the days leading up to the vote, election officials barred two pro-Russian parties from the ballot amid allegations of illegal financing.

Moldova parliamentary election seen as test of Russian interference

Authorities late on Sunday had warned of attempts to stir unrest following the vote, part of a campaign that they blamed on Russian-backed efforts to disrupt the election if it did not go in the bloc’s favour.

Moldova - a former Soviet republic of 2.4 million people that has been buffeted by the war in neighbouring Ukraine, alleged Russian interference and energy shortages - has long vacillated between Russia and Europe.

Opposition groups like the Patriotic Bloc had sought to tap into voter anger over economic pain and the slow pace of reforms - grievances worsened by what officials say has been widespread disinformation.

Inflation remains stubbornly high at around 7 per cent, while Moldovans also shoulder higher costs for imported energy.

But the stronger-than-expected electoral performance by PAS suggests its platform of European integration and breaking with Russia still resonates among wide swathes of voters.

A near-full, preliminary count is usually known in the early hours of the following morning after the closure of polls on Sunday. Votes from expatriate Moldovans can take another day to come in.

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The pivotal vote will elect a new 101-seat parliament, after which Moldova’s president nominates a prime minister, generally from the leading party or bloc, which can then try to form a new government. A proposed government needs parliamentary approval.

When polls closed locally at 9 p.m. local time on Sunday, the Central Electoral Commission reported that more than 1.59 million, or about 51.9 per cent of eligible voters had cast ballots, including 264,000 Moldovans in polling stations set up abroad, which will remain open until 7 p.m. in their respective countries. In the 2021 parliamentary election, turnout was just over 48 per cent.

Igor Grosu, the leader of Party of Action and Solidarity, said after polls closed that “Russia’s attempts to hijack the electoral process have been huge” and that state institutions made efforts to ensure the security and integrity of the voting.

“The consequences of this intervention are hard to estimate at this hour,” he said. “We are waiting for the election results. We pray for patience and calm.”

Just before the vote, police carried out hundreds of raids, detaining scores of people allegedly trained in Serbia to cause “mass riots” and destabilize the country around the critical election.

Russia has repeatedly denied meddling in Moldova and dismissed the allegations last week as “anti-Russian” and “unsubstantiated.”

But on Sunday, Moldovan police said they have information about “groups of people” planning to cause unrest from around midnight and on Monday during a protest in Chisinau, to create “disorder and destabilization.”

Shortly before polls closed, police detained three people suspected of being from the security services in Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria, who were allegedly planning to cause “mass destabilizations and disorder” after the election.

“They are alleged leaders responsible for co-ordinating, monitoring and logistically supplying the groups,” police said, adding that they found pyrotechnics and flammable materials the suspects intended on using to cause panic and chaos.

But there were many more allegations of irregularities as Moldovans cast their ballots.

Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that bomb threats had targeted polling stations set up in several cities abroad, which stopped people from voting for up to two hours in some cases, authorities said.

Sandu said in a Facebook address that the authorities also had multiple reports of voters being illegally transported to polling stations abroad, “obviously in exchange for money,” and cases of blank ballots being removed from polling stations so they could later “be reintroduced already stamped.”

Moldova’s Information Technology and Cyber ​​Security Service said that cyberattacks had targeted electoral infrastructure and government cloud services, but were swiftly dealt with.

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Promo-Lex, a nongovernmental organization monitoring the vote, said in a report a few hours before polls closed that it had confirmed more than 300 incidents, ranging from unauthorized persons at polling stations to scores of people photographing or filming their ballots.

Moldova’s large diaspora is expected to play a decisive role in Sunday’s outcome. In last year’s presidential runoff – which was also viewed as a choice between East and West – a record number of 327,000 voters cast ballots abroad, more than 82 per cent of whom favoured Sandu, and ultimately secured her re-election.

Political blocs, parties or independent candidates must respectively pass the 7-per-cent, 5-per-cent, and 2-per-cent threshold to enter parliament.

Economist Cristian Iftodi, who was born after Moldova’s independence, said the election was the “most important” in the country’s history.

“I truly believe that Moldova, although it’s a very small country, plays a really important role for the EU,” Iftodi said. “Because I think the EU can be more united if they win this battle against Russia.”

For Igor Mihailov, a 26-year-old student from Chisinau, the main priority “is for our government to be for us, not for their own interests, to be for the people.”