Moldova’s pro-European main party was comfortably ahead with some 45% of the votes after 85% of the votes counted on Sunday evening.
Trailing in second place was the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc was on some 27.9% compared to President Maia Sandu’s Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) which was in front. It was unclear whether Sandu’s party would maintain or increase its lead to win a majority.
The elections are seen as critical for their future path to the European Union amid reports of “massive Russian interference” before the vote.
The claims, first made by Moldova’s authorities, were repeated by pro-EU President Maia Sandu, who told reporters outside a polling station in the capital Chisinau the future the country which lies between Ukraine and Romania, was in danger
Former Romanian President Traian Basescu, himself a Moldovan citizen, said the issue was whether Sandu’s party could secure a majority in the 101-seat parliament.
“If it doesn’t, it will need to form a coalition with a neutral party and a party led by Chisinau Mayor, Ion Ceban, whose alliances are neither overtly pro-Russian nor pro-European,” Mr. Basescu told Digi 24 after polls closed.
Turnout by the end of voting at 21:00 was just under 52%, the electoral commission said. Partial results are expected during the night. The two political forces with opposing geopolitcal options are seen as almost neck and neck between Sandu’s pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc.
An important factor in the outcome is the roughly 270,000 voters who turned out in the largely pro-Western diaspora. In a sign of tensions, bomb scares, that proved to be hoaxes, were reported at polling stations in Italy, Romania, Spain and the US. There were similar scares reported in Moldova itself.
There are two pro-Russian breakaway enclaves, Transnistria along its border with Ukraine, complete with a Russian military presence and Gagauzia in the south. Residents have Moldovan passports and most are strongly pro-Moscow, but they have to cross the Nistru River to vote.
Moldovans are challenged by Russia’s full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine, and also inflation and slow reforms, and corruption.
President Sandu, 53, won a second term of office in November 2024 and warned Moldovans about Russian disinformation and that the future of their democracy was in their hands: “Don’t play with your vote or you’ll lose everything!”
If her PAS party loses its majority in the 101-seat parliament, it will have to look for support from two other non-Russia aligned parties expected to get into parliament to form a coalition, the Alternativa bloc or the populist Our Party.
Pro-Russian rival, the leader of the Socialist Party, Igor Dodon, appeared on the state broadcaster as polls closed, claiming the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc had won the election. His claims were not backed up by exit polls and his statement came before early results were decl
As expected, he called on the pro-European PAS government to leave power, and for party supporters to take to the streets on Monday to “defend” their vote.
