Moldova’s pro-EU party wins election fraught with Russian interference claims

Moldova’s pro-western ruling party has decisively won a parliamentary election fraught with Russian interference claims that was widely viewed as a stark choice between East and West.

With nearly all polling station reports counted, electoral data showed the pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) had 50.1% of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc had 24.2%.

The Russia-friendly Alternativa Bloc came third, followed by the populist Our Party. The right-wing Democracy at Home party also won enough votes to enter parliament.

The tense ballot on Sunday pitted the governing PAS against several Russia-friendly opponents but no viable pro-European partners. Electoral data indicate the party will hold a clear majority of about 55 of the 101 seats in the legislature.

It is likely that the country’s president Maia Sandu, who founded PAS in 2016, will opt for some continuity by nominating pro-western prime minister Dorin Recean, an economist who has steered Moldova’s government through multiple crises since 2023.

Mr Recean has also previously served as Ms Sandu’s defence and security adviser.

The election was widely viewed as a geopolitical choice for Moldovans: between a path to the European Union or a drift back into Moscow’s fold.

Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told The Associated Press that PAS’s victory was “a clear win for pro-European forces in Moldova, which will be able to ensure continuity in the next few years in the pursuit of their ultimate goal of EU integration”.

“A PAS majority saves the party from having to form a coalition that would have most likely been unstable and would have slowed down the pace of reforms to join the EU,” he said.

He added: “Moldova will continue to be in a difficult geopolitical environment characterised by Russia’s attempts to pull it back into its sphere of influence.”

The outcome of Sunday’s high-stakes ballot was noteworthy considering Moldovan authorities’ repeated claims that Russia was conducting a vast “hybrid war” to try to sway the outcome.

Moldova applied to join the EU in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and was granted candidate status that year. Brussels agreed to open accession negotiations last year.

The alleged Russian schemes included orchestrating a large-scale vote-buying scheme, conducting more than 1,000 cyber attacks on critical government infrastructure so far this year, a plan to incite riots around Sunday’s election, and a sprawling disinformation campaign online to sway voters.

In an interview with The Associated Press, days before the vote, PAS leader Igor Grosu also warned of Russian interference, and said Sunday’s results would define the country’s future “not just for the next four years, but for many, many years ahead”.

“But I believe in the determination and mobilisation spirit of Moldovans, at home and in the diaspora,” he said.

The election day was marked by a string of incidents, ranging from bomb threats at multiple polling stations abroad to cyber attacks on electoral and government infrastructure, voters photographing their ballots and some being illegally transported to polling stations.

Three people were also detained, suspected of plotting to cause unrest after the vote.

PAS campaigned on a pledge to continue Moldova’s path towards EU membership by signing an accession treaty to the 27-nation bloc by 2028, doubling incomes, modernising infrastructure, and fighting corruption.

After a legislative election, 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 then needs parliamentary approval.

Some 1.6 million people, or about 52.1% of eligible voters cast ballots, according to the central electoral commission, with 280,000 of them coming from votes in polling stations set up abroad.