Chisinau: Voting in Moldova’s presidential runoff ended as more than half of the country’s electorate headed to the polls since early Sunday. Voting, which began at 7 a.m. local time (0500GMT), continued until 9 p.m. across 2,219 polling stations, with 231 of these located abroad in 37 countries.
According to Anadolu Agency, Moldova’s Central Election Commission (CEC) reported that more than 1.6 million of the country’s citizens cast their ballots as voting concluded, corresponding to just over 54% of the electorate. The CEC announced that preliminary results would be presented in a briefing at 10 p.m. (2000GMT).
The runoff follows an initial round of voting held two weeks ago, in which President Maia Sandu, who is considered pro-Western, fell short of securing a majority for a second term. Alexandr Stoianoglo, Moldova’s former prosecutor general, finished second during the first round of voting held on October 20, positioning him as Sandu’s rival in the runoff.
The first round of the presidential election
was conducted simultaneously with a referendum in which voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment aimed at setting Moldova on a path toward EU membership. Nonetheless, both the election and referendum have been fraught with controversy. President Sandu accused ‘criminal groups’ allegedly supported by “foreign forces hostile to our national interests” of trying to disrupt the country’s democratic process and keep it “trapped in uncertainty and instability.”
Sandu stated on X, “We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes – a fraud of unprecedented scale. Their objective was to undermine a democratic process. Their intention is to spread fear and panic in the society.”
In response to these accusations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov challenged Sandu to provide concrete evidence of the alleged interference.