Chișinău (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Moldova is having its second round of presidential elections as worries over Russian interference loom large.
Moldova’s pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, confronts a crucial second-round election on 03 Nov 2024 that will decide who takes charge of the EU candidate country, amid widespread allegations of Russian interference.
What does Sandu’s runoff election mean for EU hopes?
Hundreds of thousands of voters at home and polling stations abroad will cast their ballots for either Sandu or her pro-Russian challenger, Alexandr Stoianoglo. While Sandu succeeded the largest share of votes in the first round of the presidential election two weeks ago with 42.3 per cent, she lost to secure an absolute majority, needing a runoff against her nearest rival, an ex-prosecutor and Socialist Party politician Stoianoglo.
A concurrent referendum on Oct. 20 on whether to glorify European integration into Moldova’s constitution passed by the slimmest of margins — with 50.4 per cent backing the move and 49.6 per cent against it. Sandu blamed Russia for “buying 300,000 votes” and utilising an unprecedented campaign of disinformation and propaganda to attempt to keep the former Soviet Republic inside its self-proclaimed sphere of power.
how significant is Russian influence on Moldova’s voters?
In the wake of the two October votes, Moldovan law enforcement stated that a vote-buying scheme was staged by Ilan Shor, an exiled oligarch who lives in Russia and was sentenced in absentia last year for fraud and money laundering.
Prosecutors state that $39 million was paid to more than 130,000 recipients via an internationally sanctioned Russian bank to voters between September and October. Anticorruption authorities have performed hundreds of searches and confiscated over $2.7 million in cash as they endeavour to crack down. Since then, Moldovan authorities have repeatedly blamed Russia for waging a vast “hybrid war,” from sprawling disinformation movements to protests by pro-Russian parties to vote-buying schemes that damage countrywide elections.
