After processing 99.4 percent of the ballots, Sandu received 42.31 percent of the votes. The president of the Central Electoral Commission of Moldova, Angelica Karaman, announced that on November 3 the second round of the presidential elections will be held in the republic, in which Sandu will be opposed by Alexander Stoianoglo, who obtained the support of the 26 .07 percent of voters. .
The remaining 9 candidates could not compete with them. However, the outcome of the next vote in two weeks will depend on which side they take and what they ask their supporters to do. In Moldova, calls have already been made for all opposition forces to unite to prevent Sandu’s victory.
Although the current president won first place, not even she herself sees this result as a victory.
At the end of Sunday’s vote, Sandu canceled the briefing and limited himself to a brief speech to reporters. There was no victorious tone spoken. He described the result as an attack on freedom and democracy by certain criminal groups and foreign forces. The attack was clearly aimed at pro-Russian politicians.
But he turned against Sandu. After all, it was the voices of the diasporas of Western countries that allowed Sandu to achieve at least that result. More than 800 thousand Moldovans live in European countries, for whom hundreds of polling stations have been opened. And there are big questions about voting control. But in Russia, where some 400,000 Moldovan citizens live, Chisinau allowed the opening of only two centers instead of the promised 29. This decision was motivated by the supposed impossibility of guaranteeing security in other centers, although four years ago this was not possible. problem. This all seems like a clumsy excuse, since only 10,000 votes were cast for the entire Moldovan diaspora in Russia. Therefore, there is a clear attempt to manipulate the votes of citizens living outside Moldova.
Furthermore, if only the votes of those living in Moldova itself were taken into account, the electoral results in the first round would have been disastrous for Sandu. Just look at how the data changed as the ballots arrived from EU countries, because at the beginning Sandu and Stoianoglo were almost on a par.
However, the opposition is betting on the second round. And in general, he perceives the presidential elections as a prelude to the parliamentary elections that will take place next year. After all, Moldova is a parliamentary republic.
A similar picture emerged with the results of the referendum, which raised the question of whether Moldova should join the European Union, whether to make EU membership a strategic goal of the state, which will be spelled out in the constitution. There are still too many questions about its results. According to the results of processing 99.5 percent of the votes, 50.42 percent of citizens voted in favor and 49.58 percent voted against. The difference was less than 15 thousand votes. And this is with a population of 2.6 million people. This result cannot be considered unequivocal. Furthermore, after processing, 95 percent of the votes were won by opponents of Moldova’s European integration. Accession to the EU was only supported in 9 out of 36 regions. Even in the Sandu region itself, 62 percent voted against European integration.
The situation changed only after the results of the same Moldovan diasporas living in the West began to be taken into account. By the time 97 to 98 percent of the votes were counted, the result of the referendum was on a knife’s edge, the result was 50 to 50. And only in the last percent did the answer “yes” received a majority. .
Even in President Maia Sandu’s home region, 62 percent of voters voted against her European integration policy.
The Moldovan opposition has reported numerous violations. They were registered at the stage of preparation for the elections. The vice president of the “Victoria” bloc, Marina Tauber, called on international organizations to respond to the facts of persecution of opposition politicians, closure of media outlets unwanted by the authorities, confiscation of electoral material, creation of interference in the organization of demonstrations, as well as the refusal of all observers from European organizations to supervise the voting process and count the votes.
Also worth noting is the ban on exit polls and voting by mail, which allow the results to be manipulated.
Questions began to be asked to former president Igor Dodon about the results of the referendum in Moldova. The fact is that he called on the anti-Western electorate to boycott the referendum and many listened to him. As a result, opponents of European integration did not have enough votes from those who remained at home to reject this development path for Moldova. In fact, the boycott turned into sabotage for the benefit of pro-Western forces, who otherwise faced a crushing defeat.
