Hundreds of violations reported in Moldovan elections – opposition

Moldova’s opposition alliance ‘Victory’ has accused the authorities of allowing massive violations at polling stations during the presidential elections and referendum on joining the EU. In some places, public officials were directly involved in breaching voting regulations, the political force claimed.

More than 200 violations were reported during the first half of Sunday, Victory wrote in its Telegram channel. The list of irregularities included illegal agitation as well as putting pressure on voters arriving to cast their ballots, the statement said.

In certain alleged instances, people were transferred to polling stations “by buses” in an organized fashion, suggesting controlled voting, it also claimed, adding that one village mayor had personally driven voters to a polling station in his car. He is a member of the incumbent president Maia Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), it noted.

Observers at the elections are barred from accessing many polling stations “without any valid reasons,” Victory’s statement went on to claim. Opposition observers had been completely banned from polling stations in Romania, it stated, adding that the opposition alliance’s lawyers were recording all such reports.

Sunday saw Moldovans vote to elect a president and to participate in a plebiscite on whether or not to incorporate the nation’s EU aspirations into the constitution. Incumbent leader Maia Sandu was seeking a second term, running against Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general, and Renato Usatii, a former mayor of Moldova’s second largest city, Balti, with seven other candidates also contesting.

Any presidential candidate would need to get the backing of more than 50% of the voters to win outright in the first round. If any candidate fails to secure such a majority, a runoff is expected on November 3. According to the polls, Sandu was leading the race before voting day, with the support of 35.8% of the voters. That would still not be enough for her to win in the first round.

A referendum would need at least a 33% turnout for its results to be valid. According to AFP, this threshold was reached during the afternoon. Five presidential candidates called on their supporters to either vote “no” or boycott the plebiscite altogether, arguing that it was held only to ensure Sandu’s re-election.

Moldovan authorities have spoken of Russian meddling ahead of the vote. The national police arrested hundreds of people, accusing them of being part of an alleged “vote-buying scheme,” according to AFP. Law enforcement officials also claimed this week that up to a quarter of the ballots could supposedly be “tainted by Russian cash.”

Victory accused the authorities of suppressing votes that it deems undesirable. It also pointed out that only two polling stations were opened in Russia, which hosts one of the biggest Moldovan communities in the world, totaling around half a million. The political bloc also published a photo taken on a Moscow street near the Moldovan embassy on Sunday evening, showing it flooded with people. They were said to be in line to cast their ballots at the embassy.

“Thousands of Moldovan citizens won’t be able to vote. They are lacking the ballots and many will simply have no time [to do it],” the opposition group lamented on Telegram.
Moldova, which lies between Romania and Ukraine, is a former Soviet republic that became independent in 1991. It has been actively pushing for EU and NATO membership since 2020, when Sandu, a critic of Russia and supporter of EU integration, came to power.

The country is among the poorest in Europe, and Sandu’s opposition has accused her administration of failing to resolve the crisis in the economy and energy sector, and of driving Moldova into deeper poverty.

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