Moldova is about to join the EU. What you need to know about restricted voting – National

Moldovans voted by a very slim majority in favor of guaranteeing the country’s path towards membership of the European Union, electoral data showed on Monday, after a vote which almost 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 the European referendum held on Sunday, the “yes” vote rose to 50.39%, compared to 49.61% “no”, according to the Central Electoral Commission.

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.

On Monday, President Maia Sandu reiterated her claims that unprecedented electoral fraud and foreign interference had compromised the votes, calling it a “despicable attack” on Moldova’s sovereignty.

“Unfortunately, the justice system has not done enough to prevent vote rigging and corruption,” she said at a news conference. “Here too we need to draw a line, correct what went wrong and learn the lesson. We heard you: we know we need to do more to fight corruption.

Moldovan authorities say Moscow has intensified 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, aimed at destabilizing democratic processes in the Republic of Moldova,” the spokesperson said. Peter Stano.

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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.

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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 previous polls might have “overestimated pro-European sentiment” inside Moldova and that the referendum did not It could not have been adopted without votes from outside the country.

“This is going to be particularly problematic because… it’s going to fuel the narratives pushed by the Kremlin and pro-Russian forces,” he said.

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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.

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