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Moldova’s President Maia Sandu has secured a second term after winning a second-round run-off vote, enabling the pro-western leader to push ahead with her project of bringing the country into the EU.
Sandu, who portrayed the election as a historic choice for the former Soviet country of 2.5mn between a future within the European bloc and a retreat into the Russian fold, was the clear winner over Alexandr Stoianoglo, an ex-prosecutor-general new to politics, after almost all ballots were in.
Results published by the Central Electoral Commission on Monday showed Sandu had secured 55.4 per cent of the vote, after ballots had been counted from 99.9 per cent of polling stations.
After preliminary results were published she said Moldovans had “saved” their country following months of warnings that Russia was running a rigorous campaign to interfere in the electoral process and skew the result.
“Freedom, truth, and justice have prevailed,” Sandu said on Sunday. “We have proven that, united, we can prevail over those who wanted to bring us to our knees.”
Speaking in both Romanian and Russian, which is widely used in Moldova, Sandu said she had listened to her supporters and critics and intended to “develop Moldova in peace and democracy, together with all Moldovans and for all Moldovans”.
The narrow win for Sandu comes after an uncertain result two weeks earlier, when the former World Bank economist failed to secure an outright victory in the first round. A referendum called by Sandu for the same day on Moldova’s bid to join the EU was tighter, revealing a divided country with the “yes” camp winning with just 50.35 per cent of the vote.
The European Commission on Monday “warmly congratulated” Sandu for her re-election, despite what it said was an intense effort by Russia “to undermine the country’s democratic institutions and its EU path”.
“The European Union supports Moldova’s security and resilience,” the commission said in a joint statement with Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat. “The EU will continue to work with the president and the Moldovan authorities to promote further reforms and enhance the country’s stability and prosperity on its EU path.”
Sandu becomes the first Moldovan president to win a second term. She has pledged to use it to introduce reforms necessary for accession to the EU, with the aim of joining by 2030. Moldova introduced the country’s bid for membership in 2022, shortly after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The EU opened accession talks last year. Last month, it also extended Moldova a €1.8bn multiyear package explicitly to facilitate the accession path.
The move has drawn Moscow’s ire, officials and analysts said. For months ahead of the vote Moldovan police warned of an “unprecedented” assault on the electoral process by Russia. Authorities accused Moscow of funnelling some $100mn into the country in an attempt to skew the results through bribes to an elaborate network of proxies.
“Moldova has been under an unprecedented attack in the history of all Europe — dirty money, illegal vote-buying, the interference in electoral processes by hostile forces from outside the country and by criminal groups, lies, sowing hatred, and fear within society,” Sandu said on Sunday.
On Friday, the Kremlin said it was closely monitoring the second round but reiterated that it strongly denied accusations of voting interference.
Though Stoianoglo’s candidacy was backed by the socialist party, known for its ties to Russia, Stoianoglo has stressed his independence. He criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said he also supported European integration, but wanted Moldova to take a more neutral geopolitical path and maintain good relations with both Russia and the west.
Just under 1.7mn Moldovans or 54 per cent of the electorate cast their ballots in the second-round vote, the electoral commission said, surpassing the 51 per cent participation rate in the first round and EU referendum last month.
Results showed that Sandu would have lost the second-round vote, however, had it not been for the 330,000 votes cast by the Moldovan diaspora, a major voting bloc.
Sandu secured just 49 per cent of the domestic vote, but 83 per cent of the votes cast abroad, indicating that while her foreign policy agenda holds a strong appeal, especially for the many Moldovans living in the west, domestically her support has shrunk after four years in office.
Her rival Stoianoglo was backed by voters at home who were unhappy with Sandu’s performance on the economy, which has been hit by the energy crisis and an influx of refugees across Moldova’s eastern border with Ukraine triggered by Russia’s invasion.
On Sunday night, with most results counted, Stoianoglo called for peace and unity, and said “democracy means maturity in the face of the result . . . I hope from today we end the hatred and division”.
Additional reporting by Henry Foy