Chisinau: Moldova’s pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) claimed a clear lead and majority in elections held on Sunday. As nearly all polling station reports have been counted, electoral data has revealed that pro-EU PAS secured win in the 50.1 per cent of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc received 24.2 per cent of the votes.
The Russia-friendly Alternativa Bloc came at the third spot, while the populist Our Party stood at fourth. The right-wing Democracy at Home party also received enough votes to enter parliament. Electoral data has suggested that PAS will hold a majority of around 55 of the 101 seats in the legislature. A proposed government requires parliamentary approval, Euro News reported.
One pro-Russian opposition leader, Igor Dodon, urged his supporters to participate in a rally outside Moldova’s parliament building to consolidate win before results started coming in. Eventually, it was clear that Moldovan President Maia Sandu’s party holds a majority of legislative seats.
A large diaspora of Moldova appeared to have played a decisive role in the final result. In the presidential runoff in 2024, which was viewed as a choice between East and West, a record number of 327,000 people cast votes in other countries, over 82 per cent of whom supported Sandu. After voting on Sunday, Sandu reiterated her claim that Russia interfered in the elections and insisted that she voted to “keep the peace” and insisted her nation’s future lies within the European Union.
People of Moldova faced multiple allegations of irregularities as they cast their votes. Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said bomb threats had targeted polling stations in Romania, Spain, Italy and the US. Police arrested three people suspected of being from the security services in Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria, who were allegedly plotting to create “mass destabilisations and disorder”.
Police said, “They are alleged leaders responsible for coordinating, monitoring and logistically supplying the groups,” adding that they found pyrotechnics and flammable materials which the suspects planned to use to create panic and chaos.
While the voting was underway, Sandu in an address on Facebook said that authorities had several reports of voters being illegally taken 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,” Euro News reported. Russia has repeatedly rejected allegations of interference in Moldova and called the claims “unsubstantiated.” While casting his vote, Igor Dodon rejected claims of “massive interference.”
(IANS)
