CHISINAU, Moldova\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Moldovans head to the polls Sunday to cast ballots in a tense parliamentary election fraught with claims of Russian interference. The vote could decide the country\u2019s geopolitical future: a stark choice between East and West.<\/p>\n
Landlocked between Ukraine and European Union member Romania, Moldova has spent recent years on a westward path toward the EU. Sunday\u2019s balloting to elect a new 101-seat Parliament will determine whether that continues or if the country of about 2.5 million people is pulled back into Moscow\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n
The race pits the ruling pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity, or PAS, which has held a strong parliamentary majority since 2021, against several key Russia-friendly opponents but no viable pro-European partners, leaving a lot of uncertainty over potential outcomes. <\/p>\n
If PAS fails to win a majority Sunday, \u201cit would mean an end to EU integration,\u201d Igor Grosu, the party\u2019s leader and speaker of Parliament, told the Associated Press. \u201cIt would mean dependence, halting all justice reforms, infrastructure projects, everything. \u2026 There is no middle option.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll our efforts and messages are about mobilizing to win a parliamentary majority,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Besides voter turnout, the outcome of Sunday\u2019s ballot might depend on how effective Moldovan authorities have been in their cat-and-mouse race to outwit Russia\u2019s alleged \u201chybrid war\u201d \u2014 the aim of which they say is to derail the country\u2019s EU path. <\/p>\n
Moldova\u2019s Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned that Russia is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try to \u201cseize power in Chisinau\u201d \u2014 the Moldovan capital \u2014 in a campaign he described as \u201cincreasingly radical.\u201d <\/p>\n
The alleged schemes include a large-scale vote-buying operation, cyberattacks on critical government infrastructure, a plan to incite mass riots around the election and a sprawling disinformation campaign online to sway voters.<\/p>\n
Moldovan authorities have tried to crack down by conducting hundreds of raids in recent weeks, in which scores have been detained. Moldovan President Maia Sandu said this week in a public address that the Kremlin \u201chas accomplices here in Moldova,\u201d describing them as people \u201cwilling to sell out their country for money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moscow has repeatedly denied meddling in Moldova. In a statement Thursday, Russia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed allegations of Russian interference in Moldova\u2019s elections as \u201canti-Russian\u201d and \u201cunsubstantiated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s vote also will be held less than a year after Moldovans voted narrowly in favor of securing the country\u2019s EU path, the same day Sandu won a second term in a separate vote. But those votes were also overshadowed by widespread claims of Russian interference and a massive vote-buying scheme, which Moscow denied.<\/p>\n
In recent years, as the country has lurched from crisis to crisis, Moldovans have faced rampant inflation, increasing costs of living and high poverty rates, which may have diminished support for the ruling pro-Western government.<\/p>\n
To relieve the strain, Brussels is providing Moldova with up to $2.2 billion between 2025 and 2027, about $315 million of which was released in July for projects including a new hospital and helping to lower energy bills.<\/p>\n
Eugen, a 41-year-old artist in Chisinau who did not want to give his surname due to the tense political climate, told the AP that he favors a path toward the EU, but acknowledges voters are fatigued from \u201chigh expectations and expecting miracles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have more patience in our course to the European Union,\u201d he said, adding that the 27-nation bloc represents \u201cstability, it\u2019s human rights \u2026 some kind of unity, some kind of prosperity and meritocracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A key opponent of PAS in Sunday\u2019s election is the Russia-friendly Patriotic Electoral Bloc, or BEP, a group of political parties that wants \u201cfriendship with Russia, \u201cpermanent neutrality\u201d and a \u201cstate that serves the people, not officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, the Central Electoral Commission barred the Heart of Moldova party, which was part of the BEP, from participating in the race. The commission\u2019s action was based on a ruling a day earlier by the Chisinau Court of Appeal, which restricted the party\u2019s activities for 12 months. Earlier this month, raids on party members led to allegations of voter bribery, illegal party financing and money laundering.<\/p>\n
Irina Vlah, leader of the Heart of Moldova, condemned \u201cthe abusive decision\u201d and called it a \u201cpolitical spectacle, concocted a long time ago\u201d by the ruling party. Vlah also was banned Thursday from entering Latvia, Estonia and Poland, which accused her of \u201chelping the Russian Federation\u201d to interfere in the parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
Igor Dodon, a former pro-Russian president and the leader of the Socialist Party, which is also part of the BEP, lashed out at Sandu and the ruling PAS, saying their \u201cdays are numbered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey understand that their end is near, so they resort to abusing our colleagues in the bloc,\u201d Dodon said in a post on Facebook. \u201cWe will win the elections, and together we will defend our victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Central Electoral Commission has also excluded the Moldova Mare party from the race, citing illegal financing, undeclared foreign funds and vote-buying. The Moldova Mare\u2019s leader, Victoria Furtuna, was sanctioned by the EU in July for receiving \u201csignificant support\u201d from pro-Russian fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor.<\/p>\n
Moldova\u2019s large diaspora is expected to play a decisive role in Sunday\u2019s outcome. In last year\u2019s presidential runoff, a record number of 327,000 voters cast ballots abroad, more than 82% of whom favored Sandu, which ultimately secured her reelection.<\/p>\n
Most local polls don\u2019t include the country\u2019s diaspora, and they also indicate that about a third of voters remain undecided, which leaves a big question mark over the vote. In the 2021 parliamentary election, turnout was just over 48%.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoldova now has a clear path toward becoming a member of the European Union,\u201d said Iulian Groza, executive director of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms think tank. \u201cRussia is looking at these elections as their ultimate battle \u2014 so this is why the stakes are very high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valeriu Pasa, president of the Chisinau-based think tank Watchdog, told the AP that while the economic climate may have turned some voters off PAS, the intensity of Russian interference and disinformation would have exacerbated diminishing support.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn one hand, there is the economic situation and not-perfect quality of governance, and additionally, it is Russian disinformation,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, if normally, because of the [high] prices, you should lose 3%, when it\u2019s overwhelmed by Russian propaganda, you will lose 9%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pasa added that during last year\u2019s election cycle, Russia used more \u201csophisticated narratives, conspiracies, these complex ideas,\u201d but has resorted to flooding the information space. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s just a big quantity of fakes, AI-generated content,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get rid of the Soviet legacy of Soviet propaganda, which impacted a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGrath writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHISINAU, Moldova\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Moldovans head to the polls Sunday to cast ballots in a tense parliamentary election fraught with claims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[153100,4094,153099,14235,2000,299,5187,1699,6214,13491,153097,153098,20362,332,153096,37601,115772,129484],"class_list":{"0":"post-456435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-chisinau","9":"tag-country","10":"tag-critical-parliamentary-election","11":"tag-election","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-european","15":"tag-european-union","16":"tag-leader","17":"tag-moldova","18":"tag-pas","19":"tag-pro-western-party","20":"tag-race","21":"tag-russia","22":"tag-russian-interference-claim","23":"tag-sunday","24":"tag-vote","25":"tag-voter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115278686719401050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}