Moldovans vote narrowly to secure country’s EU membership

CHISINAU – Moldovans voted by a razor-thin majority in favor of securing the country’s path to membership in the European Union, election data showed on Monday, following a vote that nearly caused a major setback for the pro-Western president, who accused “criminal groups” of trying to undermine the vote.

With 99.41% of the 1.4 million votes counted in Sunday’s EU referendum, the “yes” vote rose to 50.39%, compared to 49.61% “no”, according to the Commission central election.

The “no” vote seemed ahead until the last few thousand votes from the country’s large diaspora were counted. A defeat would have been a political disaster for the pro-Western government, which strongly supported the pro-EU campaign.

“Criminal groups, working in collaboration with foreign forces hostile to our national interests, attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda, using the most shameful means to keep our citizens and our nation trapped in uncertainty and instability,” President Maia Sandu said after about 90% of the votes were counted.

“We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes – a fraud of unprecedented scale,” Sandu added. “Their goal was to undermine a democratic process. »

The vote came as Moldovan authorities say Moscow has stepped up its “hybrid warfare” campaign to destabilize the country and derail its path to the EU. The allegations include funding pro-Moscow opposition groups, spreading disinformation, interfering in local elections and supporting a major vote-buying scheme.

In Brussels, the European Union’s executive branch, the European Commission, said its services had also noted Russian interference in Moldova and stressed its continued support for Moldova on its path to EU accession.

“This vote took place amid unprecedented interference and intimidation by Russia and its proxies, with the aim of destabilizing democratic processes in the Republic of Moldova,” the spokesperson said. -speaker Peter Stano.

Stano told reporters that allegations of vote buying, voter transportation and disinformation are only the most recent forms of Russian interference, and that attempts to undermine Moldova and its support for EU have been going on for months.

In the presidential race that took place at the same time, Sandu won the first round with 42% of the votes out of 11, but failed to obtain an absolute majority. She will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a Russia-friendly former attorney general who has outperformed polls with about 26% of the vote, in a Nov. 3 runoff.

By the time polls closed at 9 p.m. on Sunday, more than 1.5 million voters – or about 51% of eligible voters – had cast ballots, according to the Central Election Commission.

Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told the Associated Press that the polls could have “overestimated pro-European sentiment” inside Moldova, which would not have could have been adopted without votes from outside the country.

“This is going to be particularly problematic because (…) it will fuel the discourse pushed by the Kremlin and the pro-Russian forces,” he said.

US national security spokesman John Kirby echoed concerns of Russian interference this week, saying in a statement that “Russia is actively working to undermine Moldova’s elections and its European integration.” Moscow has repeatedly denied any interference in Moldova.

In early October, Moldovan law enforcement said it had uncovered a massive vote-buying scheme orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled pro-Russian oligarch currently residing in Russia, who paid 15 million euros (16 .2 million dollars) to 130,000 people to undermine both. ballots.

Shor was convicted in absentia last year of fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison in the case of $1 billion missing from Moldovan banks in 2014. He has denied the allegations, saying that the payments were legal and invoking his right to liberty. of expression. Shor’s populist, pro-Russia party was declared unconstitutional last year and banned.

On Thursday, Moldovan authorities foiled another plot in which more than 100 young Moldovans received training in Moscow from private military groups on how to create civil unrest around the two elections. Some also underwent “more advanced training in guerrilla camps” in Serbia and Bosnia, police said, and four people were detained for 30 days.

A pro-Western government has been in power in Moldova since 2021, a year after Sandu won the presidency. Legislative elections will take place next year.

Moldova, a former Soviet republic of around 2.5 million people, applied to join the EU following Russia’s large-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has obtained candidate status that summer, alongside Ukraine. Brussels agreed in June to begin accession negotiations.