Moldova’s pro-EU president Maya Sandu wins election (Updated)

Moldova‘s pro-European president Maya Sandu has won the second round of presidential elections, according to results published this evening by the country’s CEC, after 93% of votes were counted, AFP reported.

The 52-year-old candidate received 50.9% of the vote and thanked her supporters who gathered at her party headquarters, while her rival, a 57-year-old prosecutor on the the country of Alexander Stoyanoglo, with the support of the socialists who were against Russia, received 49.1%.

In reality, the candidate of the pro-Russian Socialist Party Alexander Stoyanoglo was leading Sandu in the first data, with 85% of the votes counted. Then Stojanoglo has 51.3% of the votes against 48.6% for Sandu.

Maya Sandu not only melted her lead, but also reversed the score.

At the same time, an adviser to the Moldovan president said thatmonitoring Russia’s “massive” interference in today’s second round of presidential elections.

“We are witnessing significant Russian interference in our electoral process as Moldovans today vote in the second round of presidential elections – an attempt with a high potential to overturn the results.”, the president’s national security adviser wrote in his release Stanislav Sekrieru.

The first round of the elections was two weeks ago. It was issued at the same time as a referendum, in which Moldovans supported a minimal constitutional change that provided for the country’s path to European integration to be written into the basic law.

According to Moldovan police, pro-Russian businessman Ilan Shor organized a massive vote-buying scheme in the first round of voting. The police said they have taken steps to prevent the scheme from happening again.

Moscow denies all allegations of election fraud, and Shor, who lives in Russia, has denied wrongdoing.

The competitors

The 52-year-old Sandu was unable to muster an absolute majority in the vote on October 20 – she was supported by 42.45 percent of those who voted. However, this is the highest result among the 11 candidates, reports DPA.

Her worst rival, Stojanoglo, whose candidacy was announced by the anti-Russian Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon, took second place with 25.98 percent.

Despite the huge difference between Sandu and her opponent in the first round, the result of today’s run-off is not considered a lost decision, noting DPA.

Moldova, whose economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, has candidate status for European Union membership, as does Ukraine. Although Sandu remains popular today, she has come under fire for the country’s lack of economic and social progress, with a population of about 2.5 million.

The 57-year-old Stoyanoglo claims the line of desire at the same time to join the EU and maintain good economic relations with Russia. According to his opponents, he is a puppet of corrupt oligarchs, DPA says.

Security services in Moldova announced that they had discovered a Russian-led vote-buying scheme ahead of the first round of elections.

Hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living abroad – mostly in EU countries – as well as Moldovan citizens in the breakaway region of Transnistria controlled by Russia can exercise their right to vote in the second round today.

Polling stations in the country opened at 7:00 in the morning local time (also Bulgarian) and will close at 9:00 pm.