Moldovan President Maia Sandu casts her vote for the presidential election and the referendum on enshrining the country’s path to European Union membership in the Constitution, in Chisinau, Moldova, on October 20, 2024. VADIM GHIRDA / APLooking good despite a bad game was the stance taken by Maia Sandu, Moldova’s pro-European president and candidate for re-election, after the first-round results of the presidential election were announced late Sunday evening (October 20). The results were disappointing for the pro-European camp, as victory seemed within reach for supporters of a rapprochement with Moscow, which once ruled Moldova during the Soviet era.
Sandu believed she could muster a broad consensus and high turnout by holding a referendum on European Union (EU) membership on the same day as the presidential election in her country of 2.6 million inhabitants. On Monday morning, with more than 99% of the votes counted, the “Yes” side was narrowly ahead with 50.39% in favor of the question: “Are you in favor of amending the Constitution to allow the Republic of Moldova to join the European Union?” The Kremlin immediately denounced “anomalies” in the vote count.
“Moldova has faced an unprecedented attack on the freedom and democracy of our country, today and in recent months,” said Sandu at a press conference. The conference was delayed for several hours as the partial results, which initially looked calamitous for the “Yes” side, improved once votes from the capital and the diaspora (generally favorable to Sandu) were counted to the predominantly anti-Sandu rural vote.
Saidu, 52, came out well ahead in the first round of the presidential election with 42.31% of the vote. On November 3, she will face Alexandru Stoianoglo, a 57-year-old former prosecutor backed by the pro-Russian socialists, in the second round. Stoianoglo performed almost three times higher than the polls predicted, with 26.09% of the vote.
‘Sowing fear and panic’
“Maia Sandu was aiming for a score of 45%, her supporters were even hoping for re-election in the first round. Her problem is that she has no reserve of votes for the second round, unlike her rival Stoianoglo,” pointed out Ion Tabarta, political scientist and executive director of the NATO Information and Documentation Centre in Chisinau.
The outgoing candidate sought to explain these disappointing results by the action of “criminal groups, acting in connection with foreign forces hostile to our national interests,” a transparent allusion to Russia, which Chisinau accused of illegally financing the opposition. According to Sandu, these criminal groups have “attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda. We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes. Their aim was to undermine the democratic process. Their intention was to sow fear and panic in society.”
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