Moldovans voted in a pivotal parliamentary election on Sunday that will decide whether the country of 2.4 million stays on its path towards EU membership or drifts back into Moscow’s orbit, amid widespread reports of Russian meddling.
The president, Maia Sandu, and her pro-western Action and Solidarity party (PAS) faced a stiff challenge in the election from an alliance of Soviet-nostalgic, Moscow-friendly parties led in part by the former president, Igor Dodon, whom Sandu defeated in 2020.
Ahead of the vote, polls suggested PAS was likely to remain the largest party but could lose its parliamentary majority, potentially limiting Sandu’s efforts to push through changes required for EU accession.
Polling stations closed at 9pm after a turbulent day marked by officials reporting attempts to disrupt the vote, including cyberattacks on election systems and fake bomb threats at polling sites abroad. Counting was expected to continue late into the night before preliminary results were announced.
Stanislav Secrieru, Sandu’s national adviser, wrote on X that Moldovans were voting “under massive pressure from Russia and its proxies”. Russia has repeatedly rejected claims of meddling in Moldova and dismissed the allegations last week as “anti-Russian” and “unsubstantiated”.
Secrieru said that bomb threats had been called into voting stations in Brussels, Rome and the US. The ballots of Moldova’s sizeable diaspora, which tends to back closer ties with Europe, were expected to play a decisive role in the outcome.
Dodon, who heads the Patriotic bloc opposing Sandu’s pro-European course, said his allies had documented electoral violations and were gathering evidence. He called on all opposition parties to join a peaceful protest outside parliament on 29 September.
The election outcome will be closely watched in Brussels and other European capitals, where fears are high that Moscow could gain a foothold in a strategically vital region as it intensifies its hybrid campaign across the continent.
Casting her ballot in Chișinău, Sandu warned voters of the stakes. “Moldova, our dear home, is in danger and it needs the help of each one of you. You can save it today with your vote. Tomorrow may be too late,” she said. “The fate of our country must be decided by your vote, not by bought votes.”
Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has oscillated between building closer ties with Brussels and clinging to Soviet-era relations with Moscow.
Sandu, a former World Bank official elected in 2020 on a wave of anti-corruption sentiment, has staked her presidency on a pro-European course. Her government oversaw a referendum last October in which Moldovans narrowly voted to enshrine EU membership as a constitutional goal. On the same day, Sandu was re-elected as president for a four-year term.
In Moldova, power is shared between the directly elected president and a prime minister appointed by parliament.
This year’s parliamentary campaign was overshadowed by mounting allegations of Russian interference. Moldovan authorities accuse Moscow of funnelling billions of dollars into pro-Russian parties, vote-buying schemes and propaganda campaigns aimed at stoking anti-western sentiment.
A Reuters investigation revealed on Wednesday how Moscow recruited and paid dozens of priests in the deeply religious country to urge congregations to vote against PAS.
Two pro-Russian parties were barred from the race on Friday over financing irregularities, a move that angered the opposition and drew sharp criticism from Moscow.
Moscow has denied interfering in Moldova’s affairs but it continues to shelter the fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, who is under US and EU sanctions and is widely believed to be orchestrating campaigns aimed at destabilising the country.
A western diplomat in Moldova said: “It’s a small country but the consequences are disproportionately big for Europe. If Moldova turns back to Russia, it will be a massive headache for European security.”
A western intelligence official told the Guardian that Moscow had made Moldova its “key foreign policy priority after Ukraine” in recent months, noting that the Kremlin had reshuffled the team handling Moldova earlier this year to pursue a more aggressive strategy.
Sandu’s main vulnerability is the economy. Inflation remains stubbornly high, emigration continues and GDP growth has been modest.
Her supporters argue the problems stem largely from external shocks: Russia’s war in Ukraine plunged the country into turmoil, cutting off key trade routes, triggering an energy crisis and forcing Moldova to absorb tens of thousands of refugees.
Sandu will be counting on Moldova’s diaspora, which has traditionally backed PAS, as well as younger urban voters to turn out in large numbers.
But her party remains far less popular in regions with strong pro-Russian leanings: Transnistria, where Moscow still stations about 1,500 troops after a brief separatist war in the 1990s, and Gagauzia, a semi-autonomous area where pro-Russian sentiment runs deep.
