The pro-European party of Moldovan President Maia Sandu has claimed victory and a new majority in parliament in Sunday’s elections seen as critical for her country’s future path to the EU.
Sandu had warned of “massive Russian interference” after voting, saying the future of Moldova, flanked by Ukraine and Romania, was at stake.
Igor Grosu, the leader of Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) which secured about 50% of the vote, said Russia had thrown “everything it had” at the election.
Opposition leader Igor Dodon had claimed victory even before results came in and called for protests outside parliament in the capital Chisinau on Monday.
However, the win by PAS is emphatic: Monday’s protest was tiny and mostly attended by pensioners. And there is no sense at this point that they have any momentum.
With 99.9% of the 1.6 million votes counted, PAS had 50.17% of the vote – far ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc on 24.18%, Moldova’s central electoral commission said.
Turnout was 52%, higher than in recent years.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the result. “You made your choice clear: Europe. Democracy. Freedom,” she wrote on X on Monday.
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “From what we see and know, we can conclude that hundreds of thousands of Moldovans were deprived of the opportunity to vote in Russia because there were only two polling stations open to them, which was of course insufficient.”
Credit: bbc.com
