Pro-EU party retains power in Moldovan election despite Russian interference fears

Moldova’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), led by pro-EU President Maia Sandu, won a pivotal parliamentary election on Sunday, seeing off the pro-Kremlin opposition amid fears of Russian interference, the country’s Central Electoral Commission announced on Monday.

With over 99% of ballots counted by Monday morning, PAS secured 50.15% of the almost 1.6 million votes cast, allowing it to retain the majority it won in the last parliamentary election in 2021 and guaranteeing it at least 55 seats in Moldova’s 101-seat parliament.

The pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc alliance took second place with 24.19%, while the nominally pro-EU Alternative Bloc, the populist Our Party and the Democracy at Home Party, which advocates for the unification of Moldova with neighbouring Romania, all cleared the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament.

Turnout was the highest since 2019 at 52.18% and included more than 280,000 votes from Moldovan citizens living outside the country, the Central Electoral Commission said, with most members of the diaspora thought to favour the PAS.

Following Sandu’s victory in a presidential election in November, Sunday’s parliamentary election was seen as a referendum on whether Moldova would continue its course towards EU membership or pivot to closer ties with Moscow.

On Friday, Sandu described the vote as Moldova’s “most consequential” to date and said that Moldovans faced a choice on “whether we consolidate our democracy and join the EU, or whether Russia drags us back into a grey zone, making us a regional risk”, adding that “Moldova’s future must be decided by Moldovans, not Moscow”.

After casting her ballot on Sunday, Sandu said she had voted to “preserve peace” amid a Russian interference campaign aimed at “bringing the authorities in Chisinau under its control and using Moldova for its own purposes”.

The Moldovan authorities reported a number of irregularities during Sunday’s election, including voters being transported en masse to polling stations and bomb threats being made to Moldovan consulates where voting was being conducted in Romania, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the US.

Before the official results were announced on Sunday evening, Igor Dodon — who leads the Party of Socialists in the Patriotic Bloc — claimed the PAS had tried to “manipulate” the election and called on supporters of the pro-Kremlin opposition alliance to gather in front of the parliament building in the capital Chisinau at noon on Monday to “defend” their vote.