21 October 2024, 12:08
Young Moldovans waving EU and Moldovan flags take part during a march downtown Chisinau to celebrate Europe Day.
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Moldova has voted by the smallest of margins to join the European Union in a referendum marred by allegations of voter fraud.
The Yes campaign won the national referendum by less than one per cent, just a few thousand votes.
This result came amid allegations of Russian electoral interference, with the country’s pro-EU president Maia Sandu accusing “criminal groups” of undermining the referendum.
The referendum, which came at the same time as the country’s presidential election, asked Moldovans to vote on whether the country should begin on a path to becoming an EU member state.
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50.18% of a total 1.4 million ballots cast voted to join the EU, according to the Central Electoral Commission.
Moldova’s President Maia Sandu attends a press conference at her campaign headquarters in Chisinau October 21, 2024.
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Since the results came in, the Kremlin has accused the Yes campaign of preventing a free election.
Vladimir Putin’s government said, “opposition was deprived of the opportunity of engaging in the electoral process”.
They claimed the “election was not free”, and suggested the “sudden increase in votes” the Yes campaign was “difficult to explain.”
At midnight, around 90 per cent of the vote had been counted, with the Yes campaign trailing by around 10 points.
Siegfried Mureșan, a Romanian MEP working on Moldova’s EU membership, said the vote “represents a victory for the people of the Republic of Moldova and a defeat for Russia.”
“I will ensure that we, as the European Union, respect the will of the Moldovan people expressed in the referendum and provide all the necessary support for the EU accession process,” he added.
Russia has been accused of interfering in the vote.
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Moldova first applied to join the EU after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.
Speaking on Sunday evening, Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, said: “We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes – a fraud of unprecedented scale.”
Sandu added: “Their objective was to undermine a democratic process.”