Worthy Christian News > World News > Moldova’s Pro-Western President Wins Election Despite ‘Russian Meddling’ (Worthy News In-Depth)

Moldova’s Pro-Western President Wins Election Despite ‘Russian Meddling’ (Worthy News In-Depth)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

CHISINAU/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Moldova’s pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu claimed victory at Sunday’s closely-fought presidential election, narrowly defeating her pro-Russia-rival Alexandr Stoianoglo at a time when Russian forces still control a separatist region of the Eastern European nation.

With 98 percent of the ballots counted, Sandu led Stoianoglo, an ex-prosecutor general under criminal investigation for corruption, with 54.35 percent, the Central Election Commission said.

Monday’s results came after an election and campaign marred by allegations of interference denied by Moscow.

Sunday’s runoff followed a first-round vote two weeks earlier in which Sandu finished far ahead of Stoianoglo, seen by critics as “Moscow’s man.”

Nine other candidates have pledged to halt Moldova’s efforts to join the European Union and instead align the country with Russia.

Most of the losers in the first round endorsed Stoianoglo for the runoff. The turnout on Sunday was more than 54 percent, official data showed.

The outcome meant a setback for the traditionally pro-Russian Socialist Party backing Sandu’s rival and came despite reported election wrongdoing.

DIRECTED FROM MOSCOW

Moldovan officials and investigative journalists say they discovered “a vote-buying operation financed and directed from Moscow” by a fugitive Moldovan tycoon and convicted fraudster.

In an apparent reference to Russia, Sandu condemned “hostile forces from outside the country and criminal groups” for mounting a campaign to sway the result.

In a televised address to the nation early Monday, she claimed that “dirty money and illegal vote buying” had been an “attack unprecedented in the whole of Europe’s history.”

Yet, she thanked Moldovans living abroad, whose vote tipped the result in her favor, but said the election was a victory for the whole country. “Today you saved Moldova,” she said, “In our choice for a dignified future, no one lost.”

Yet she faces challenges ranging from fears that the war in neighboring Ukraine will spread into her nation to improving the lives of people.

Moldova is regarded as one of Europe’s poorest nations, a legacy of its time as part of the Moscow-led Soviet Union, which ceased to exist in late 1991.

The 52-year-old Sandu, a former World Bank adviser, also has to deal with Transnistria, the breakaway pro-Kremlin territory hosting a military base with 1,500 Russian troops.

KEY REGION TROUBLES

Transnistria, a sliver of Moldovan territory along the Dniester River east of the capital, Chisinau, declared itself independent as a Russian-speaking state after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

That move left Romanian speakers mainly in control of the rest of Moldova while the Russian military occupied Transnistria in 1992.

The region, which has not been recognized as a separate state internationally, has become a source of tension, with Russia’s war raging in nearby Ukraine.

Amid political, security, and social upheaval, an exodus of young people seeking work abroad has shrunk Moldova’s population by more than 35 percent to under three million over the last three decades.

However, despite its small size, the country has become a focus of big power rivalry as it is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, members of the NATO military alliance, and the European Union.

It also explained why the EU and the United States closely watched the elections.

European leaders celebrated the election as a victory against what Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, called “Russia’s aggressive and massive interference.”

WILL TREND CONTINUE?

He expressed hope “that this trend will continue in the coming days and months in other countries as well.”

Yet the vote was held a week after a contested election in Georgia, another former Soviet territory, handed victory to the Moscow-leaning governing party Georgian Dream.

Sunday’s election in Moldova meant a second victory for President Sandu: She also successfully campaigned for a referendum on whether to enshrine the Constitution of Moldova to include Moldovan citizens’ wish for European Union membership. The change would make it harder for future governments to shift the country away from its pro-European trajectory.

A slim majority of 50.46 percent backed EU accession in a referendum also clouded by allegations of Russia-backed meddling.

The outcome came as the minority pro-Romanian branch of Moldova’s Orthodox Church accused clergy from the rival Moscow-linked branch of the church of campaigning against the referendum.

They suggested it aimed to prevent the ex-Soviet agricultural economy from joining the European Union by 2030 and leave Moscow’s orbit for good.

The minority Metropolis of Bessarabia said rival priests were lobbying against the pro-European president’s campaign seeking membership of the 27-nation bloc in “profoundly offensive acts… clearly directed against the spiritual and national unity” of Moldova.