Moldova’s pro-Western ruling party has won a weekend parliamentary election that was widely viewed as a choice between East and West.
By Linda Bordoni
With nearly all polling station reports counted on Monday, electoral data shows the pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity, or PAS, securing 50.1% of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc won 24.2%. The Russia-friendly Alternativa Bloc came third.
As soon as the election results were announced, giving PAS a clear parliamentary majority, European leaders hailed Moldovans for reaffirming their commitment to a Western path and future membership in the European Union in the face of alleged Russian interference.
The outcome of Sunday’s high-stakes ballot was noteworthy considering Moldovan authorities’ repeated claims that Russia was conducting a vast “hybrid war” to try to sway the outcome and seize power in Chisinau.
The alleged Russian schemes included orchestrating a large-scale vote-buying scheme, conducting more than 1,000 cyberattacks on critical government infrastructure so far this year, a plan to incite riots around Sunday’s election, and a sprawling disinformation campaign online to sway voters.
The Head of OSCE’s monitoring mission described the vote as competitive but marred by serious cases of foreign interference
The country is small in size and population, but has strategic geopolitical importance.
Landlocked between war-torn Ukraine and EU and NATO member Romania, Moldova was a Soviet republic until it proclaimed independence in 1991. In recent years, it has taken a clear Westward path.
Moldova applied to join the EU in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and was granted candidate status that year. Brussels agreed to open accession negotiations last year.
(Source AP and other agencies)
