Moscow. The results of the presidential elections and the constitutional referendum last Sunday in Moldova – the poorest country in Europe, emerging from the former Soviet Union, wedged between Romania and Ukraine, with a region, Transdnistria, which declares itself independent, and whose population is divided between those who aspire to join the European Union and those who would like to remain the same or even be part of Russia -, left a bittersweet taste this Monday in the main promoter of the event at the polls, President Maia Sandu, who was looking for a support for his pro-European commitment.
Once the final results of the vote were known – which, as expected, turned around when the votes cast abroad by the hundreds of thousands of Moldovans working in European countries were counted, displacing the anti-government trend that marked the votes inside the republic. , identified more with Russia –, Sandu got the highest number of support, 42.20 percent.
However, although she obtained 16 points more than the next candidate, former prosecutor general Aleksandr Stoianoglo, nominated by the Socialist Party close to Moscow’s interests, with 26.16 percent, Sandu’s result was not enough to be reelected as she did not reach the required minimum of 50 percent plus one and, therefore, the Moldovan presidency will have to be decided in the second round, on the following November 3.
Sandu also did not achieve overwhelming support for Moldova’s entry into the European Union, but the No vote promoted by his opponents did not prevail. Moldovans were asked to answer the question: “Do you agree to amend the Constitution in order for Moldova to join the European Union?” The initiative was approved with only 50.29 percent of the votes cast compared to 49.71 percent of votes against.
This tiny difference in favor of the government’s position highlighted that Moldovan society is divided and the desire to integrate into Europe is not unanimous, just as the presidential team failed so much when they wanted to take their followers to the polls to achieve a victory. devastating as the pollsters that predicted an advantage of more than 30 points for Sandu’s initiative.
Because of this, the current president accused her adversaries – “criminal groups,” she called them – of interfering “from Moscow” in Sunday’s vote. He assured that the controversial tycoon Ilon Shor, refugee in the Russian capital after being charged with multimillion-dollar fraud and theft, created a fraudulent scheme to “buy 300 thousand votes” in Trasnistria, Gagaujzia and other pro-Russian areas, supposedly with 15 million dollars deposited in Russian banks, and that the Kremlin allocated “100 million euros” to boycott the referendum to include in the preamble of the Magna Carta the aspiration of Moldovans to be part of the European Union.
From the other extreme, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dimitri Peskov, reacted by saying that the results of the presidential elections and the referendum in Moldova “leave many questions” and implied that “there were anomalies during the counting of votes in favor of (President Maia) Sandu and European integration”, as well as that the opposition was not allowed to participate on equal terms in the electoral campaign.
For Peskov, “it would not be bad for her (Sandu) to explain the large number of votes against the politics she practices. Are they also criminal groups? Or does she take into account that all Moldovan citizens who do not support her are associated with criminal groups?”
The followers of Aleksandr Stoianoglo, the second highest voted, wonder how the trend could be reversed which, with nearly 90 percent of the scrutiny, indicated that the majority of voters were against integration in Europe, but the Electoral Commission Central, the highest authority on the matter, affirms that the last-minute votes from abroad tipped the balance to the other side.
Regardless of whether the November 3 runoff confirms Sandu’s re-election, the future of Moldova – experts say – will be decided in the crucial legislative elections next spring.
A narrow majority voted “yes” in Moldova’s crucial referendum on European Union integration, near-final results show, after President Maia Sandu said the election was marred by outside interference. Via Graphic News
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