{"id":44348,"date":"2024-11-03T23:07:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T23:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=44348"},"modified":"2024-11-03T23:07:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T23:07:55","slug":"maia-sandu-wins-second-term-in-moldovan-election-in-rebuke-to-kremlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/11\/03\/maia-sandu-wins-second-term-in-moldovan-election-in-rebuke-to-kremlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Maia Sandu wins second term in Moldovan election in rebuke to Kremlin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The pro-western incumbent Maia Sandu has won a second term in office in the Moldovan presidential election, preliminary results have shown, marking a significant boost for the country\u2019s EU aspirations and a clear rebuke to Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moldovans voted on Sunday in a runoff election seen as a crucial indicator of whether the country\u2019s long-term geopolitical alignment would be with Russia<\/a> or Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pro-western incumbent, Sandu, who has intensified the nation\u2019s efforts to break away from Moscow\u2019s influence, was facing the Kremlin-friendly political newcomer, Alexandr Stoianoglo, from the Socialist party, in the second round of voting on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 97% of the votes counted, Sandu is leading by a margin of 8%. With only parts of the country\u2019s diaspora vote still outstanding, analysts predict that Sandu is all but guaranteed to win re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early results indicate that the large Moldovan diaspora, accounting for about 20% of the electorate, is overwhelmingly voting for Sandu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results would be a significant boost for Sandu and her long-term EU agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandu\u2019s position was weakened after a referendum she initiated, asking Moldovans whether they supported EU integration, that was passed by only the tiniest of margins<\/a> on 20 October. The referendum was held alongside the first round of the presidential elections where Sandu received 42% of the ballot but failed to win an outright majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moldovan<\/a>
The presidential candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo speaks at a briefing on the preliminary results of the second round of the election in Chi\u0219in\u0103u on 3 November. Photograph: Vladislav Culiomza\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The election outcome will be welcomed in Brussels a week after Georgia, another ex-Soviet state hoping to join the EU, re-elected a party viewed by most countries as increasingly Moscow-friendly and authoritarian<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU has promised a \u20ac1.8bn multiyear package for Moldova to help it on the accession path which the country officially began in June. Sandu has pledged to \u201cwork night and day\u201d to take Moldova into the EU by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Moldova has gravitated between pro-western and pro-Russian courses. But under Sandu, a former World Bank adviser, the impoverished country has accelerated its push to escape Moscow\u2019s orbit as the war in neighbouring Ukraine<\/a> continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both presidential election rounds as well as the EU referendum vote were marred by accusations of Russian interference<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For months, Sandu and her allies have accused Russia and its proxies of leading a large-scale campaign involving vote-buying and misinformation to sway the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials in the capital of Chi\u0219in\u0103u believe that Moscow invested approximately $100m (\u00a377.2m) before the first vote and had reportedly smuggled in some of the funds by \u201cmoney mules\u201d detained by police at the main airport while carrying bundles of \u20ac10,000 (\u00a38,390) in cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandu\u2019s team said it intensified efforts to prevent a repeat of what they described as a large-scale vote-buying scheme orchestrated by the Russian-backed fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor during the first round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMoldova has had a monumental task before it: just two weeks to stop a sprawling Kremlin-backed vote-buying scheme that proved effective in the twin vote on 20 October,\u201d said Olga Rosca, a foreign policy adviser to Sandu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maia<\/a>
Maia Sandu, the current president and presidential candidate of the Action and Solidarity party, votes in the Moldovan presidential election on 3 November. Photograph: Diego Herrera Carcedo\/Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still, on Sunday, Sandu\u2019s national security adviser, Stanislav Secrieru, wrote on X that they were \u201cseeing massive interference by Russia in our electoral process \u2026 an effort with high potential to distort the outcome\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cybersecurity agency reports the Central Election Commission\u2019s voter education site was temporarily down this morning due to a DDoS attack,\u201d Secrieru added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kremlin has denied interfering in the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe resolutely reject any accusations that we are somehow interfering in this. We are not doing this,\u201d the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tight result of the EU referendum has weakened Sandu\u2019s standing, placing her in direct opposition to Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general who exceeded expectations with 26% of the vote on the Party of Socialists\u2019 ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In last weekend\u2019s presidential debate, Sandu accused Stoianoglo of being a \u201cTrojan horse\u201d candidate for outside interests bent on seizing control of Moldova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stoianoglo has denied working on behalf of Russia. In an interview with the Guardian in October, he claimed that he was in favour of joining the EU but boycotted the vote, calling it a parody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has also declined to criticise the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine and called for improved relations with Moscow. \u201cThe level of Russian interference in Moldova is highly exaggerated,\u201d he said, adding that he would seek a \u201creset of relations\u201d with Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has shocked many in Chi\u0219in\u0103u, which is just a few hours\u2019 drive from Ukraine\u2019s Black Sea port city of Odesa, and the Kremlin\u2019s shadow looms large. Moscow has 1,500 troops stationed in Transnistria, a region run by pro-Russian separatists who broke away from Moldova\u2019s government in a brief war in the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine, whose president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has repeatedly praised Sandu, will breathe a sigh of relief, as many in Kyiv have been anxious about the prospect of a Russia-friendly president leading the country that borders them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pro-western incumbent Maia Sandu has won a second term in office in the Moldovan presidential election, preliminary results have shown, marking a significant boost for the country\u2019s EU aspirations and a clear rebuke to Moscow. Moldovans voted on Sunday in a runoff election seen as a crucial indicator of whether the country\u2019s long-term geopolitical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,12487,5754,5304,7358,6573,5919,1904,10387,11583,7331,9331,7954,11399,10391,9387,12624,6712,423,911,11067,159,6621,8484,2264,11493,5252,1152,5342,6620,11743,11624,6067,5612,5340,7693,6072,9266,11542,12727,421,11082,3805,11377,1776,12526,7400,11488,13301,3457,5217,5655,7820,7158,12524,9602,9178,5180,7231,11255,5251,12790,10415,36,2920,594,10353,7932],"class_list":["post-44348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-agenda","tag-airport","tag-attack","tag-bank","tag-black","tag-breakup","tag-brussels","tag-campaign","tag-capital","tag-cash","tag-city","tag-cybersecurity","tag-debate","tag-declined","tag-detained","tag-diaspora","tag-dmitry-peskov","tag-education","tag-election","tag-escape","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-interview","tag-invasion","tag-kremlin","tag-kyiv","tag-maia-sandu","tag-majority","tag-maria-sandu","tag-moldova","tag-money","tag-moscow","tag-national-security","tag-odesa","tag-oligarch","tag-orbit","tag-package","tag-police","tag-port","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-presidential-election","tag-pro-russian","tag-referendum","tag-reset","tag-results","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-security","tag-soviet-union","tag-stanislav","tag-ticket","tag-transnistria","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-union","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-war","tag-weekend","tag-work","tag-world","tag-world-bank","tag-who","tag-x","tag-zelenskyy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44350,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44348\/revisions\/44350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}