Moldova awaits election results in vote plagued by Russian interference claims

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CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldovans are awaiting the results of their closely-watched parliamentary election Sunday, a race fraught with claims of Russian interference. Many viewed the ballot as a geopolitical choice between a path to the European Union or a drift back into Moscow’s fold.

The tense race was marked by a string of incidents, ranging from bomb threats at multiple polling stations abroad to cyberattacks on electoral and government infrastructure, voters photographing their ballots and some being illegally transported to polling stations. Police also detained three people suspected of plotting to cause unrest after the vote.

When polls closed locally at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Sunday, the Central Electoral Commission reported that more than 1.59 million, or about 51.9% of eligible voters had cast ballots, including 264,000 Moldovans in polling stations set up abroad, which will remain open until 7 p.m. in their respective countries. In the 2021 parliamentary election, turnout was just over 48%.

The race pitted the governing pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity, which has held a strong parliamentary majority since 2021, against several Russia-friendly opponents but no viable pro-European partners, leaving a lot of uncertainty over potential outcomes even as the results data rolls in.

The pivotal vote will elect a new 101-seat parliament, after which Moldova’s president nominates a prime minister, generally from the leading party or bloc, which can then try to form a new government. A proposed government needs parliamentary approval.

Igor Grosu, the leader of Party of Action and Solidarity, said after polls closed that “Russia’s attempts to hijack the electoral process have been huge” and that state institutions made efforts to ensure the security and integrity of the voting.

“The consequences of this intervention are hard to estimate at this hour,” he said. “We are waiting for the election results. We pray for patience and calm.”

Moldova is landlocked between Ukraine and EU member Romania. The country of about 2.5 million people has spent recent years on a westward path and gained candidate status to the EU in 2022, shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Tensions between Russia and Moldova, a Soviet republic until 1991, skyrocketed.

After casting her ballot on Sunday, Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu reiterated long-held claims that Russia “massively interfered” in the election, saying she voted “to keep the peace” and that her country’s future lies within the EU.

Days before Sunday’s vote, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned that Russia was spending “hundreds of millions” of euros as part of an alleged hybrid war to try to seize power, which he described as “the final battle for our country’s future.”

The alleged Russian strategies include a large-scale vote-buying operation, cyberattacks, a plan to incite mass riots around the election and a sprawling disinformation campaign online to diminish support for the pro-European ruling party and sway voters toward Moscow-friendly ones.

Just before the vote, police carried out hundreds of raids, detaining scores of people allegedly trained in Serbia to cause “mass riots” and destabilize the country around the critical election.

Russia has repeatedly denied meddling in Moldova and dismissed the allegations last week as “anti-Russian” and “unsubstantiated.”

But on Sunday, Moldovan police said they have information about “groups of people” planning to cause unrest from around midnight and on Monday during a protest in Chisinau, to create “disorder and destabilization.”

Igor Dodon, a former president and a member of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc, called for a protest in front of the Parliament building on Monday, and later alleged after polls closed that the pro-Western ruling party “is now in panic and is considering various pretexts, excuses and scenarios that go beyond the law and democratic norms.”

Shortly before polls closed, police detained three people suspected of being from the security services in Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria, who were allegedly planning to cause “mass destabilizations and disorder” after the election.

“They are alleged leaders responsible for coordinating, monitoring and logistically supplying the groups,” police said, adding that they found pyrotechnics and flammable materials the suspects intended on using to cause panic and chaos.

But there were many more allegations of irregularities as Moldovans cast their ballots.

Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that bomb threats had targeted polling stations set up in several cities abroad, which stopped people from voting for up to two hours in some cases, authorities said.

Sandu said in a Facebook address that the authorities also had multiple reports of voters being illegally transported 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.”

Moldova’s Information Technology and Cyber ​​Security Service said that cyberattacks had targeted electoral infrastructure and government cloud services, but were swiftly dealt with.

Promo-Lex, a nongovernmental organization monitoring the vote, said in a report a few hours before polls closed that it had confirmed more than 300 incidents, ranging from unauthorized persons at polling stations to scores of people photographing or filming their ballots.

Moldova’s large diaspora is expected to play a decisive role in Sunday’s outcome. In last year’s presidential runoff — which was also viewed as a choice between East and West — a record number of 327,000 voters cast ballots abroad, more than 82% of whom favored Sandu, and ultimately secured her reelection.

A key opponent of PAS in Sunday’s election is the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc, a group of political parties that wants “friendship with Russia” and “permanent neutrality.” Others include the populist Our Party, which wants “balanced foreign policy” between East and West, and the Alternativa Bloc, which claims to be pro-European but critics say would seek closer ties to Moscow.

Political blocs, parties or independent candidates must respectively pass the 7%, 5%, and 2% threshold to enter parliament.

As the country has lurched from crisis to crisis, Moldovans have faced rampant inflation, instability from the war next door, increasing costs of living and high poverty rates, all which may have diminished support for the pro-European ruling party that Sandu founded in 2016.

Economist Cristian Iftodi, who was born after Moldova's independence, said the election was the “most important” in the country's history.

“I truly believe that Moldova, although it’s a very small country, plays a really important role for the EU," Iftodi said. "Because I think the EU can be more united if they win this battle against Russia.”

For Igor Mihailov, a 26-year-old student from Chisinau, the main priority “is for our government to be for us, not for their own interests, to be for the people.”