LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago
A REFERENDUM ON Moldova joining the EU has passed with a razor-thin majority today as pro-Brussels President Maia Sandu blamed the outcome on foreign meddling in a veiled reference to Russia, which denied the accusations.
The closeness of the vote is a setback for Sandu, who managed to top the first round of presidential elections held at the same time on Sunday but will face a tough second round.
The referendum had been widely expected to pass in the country of 2.6 million people which neighbours war-torn Ukraine.
Sandu applied for Moldova to join the European Union following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
A stern Sandu said late Sunday that Moldova had witnessed ”an unprecedented assault on our country’s freedom and democracy, both today and in recent months,” blaming “criminal groups, working together with foreign forces hostile to our national interests”.
Moscow has “categorically” rejected accusations of meddling.
In the presidential election, Sandu gained almost 42% of the votes, according to the results, and so will face her closest competitor, Alexandr Stoianoglo, in a second round on 3 November.
The former prosecutor backed by the pro-Russian Socialists had picked up a higher-than-expected result of more than 26% in the race with 11 competitors in total.
Sandu, 52, a former World Bank economist and Moldova’s first woman president, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, had been the clear favourite in the race, with surveys also predicting a “yes” victory in the referendum.
Sandu’s critics say she has not done enough to fight inflation in one of Europe’s poorest countries or to reform the judiciary.
In his campaign, Stoianoglo – who was fired as prosecutor by Sandu – called for the “restoration of justice” and vowed to maintain a “balanced foreign policy”.
The 57-year-old abstained from voting in the referendum.
In Chisinau, voter Ghenadie, who declined to give his last name, said he was worried by what he saw as the country’s “Western” drift and thought the government was “making the situation worse” economically.
Another voter, Olga Cernega, a 60-year-old economist, said she had come to vote “for prosperity, peace and wellbeing in our country”.
Fears of Russian interference have been looming large.
Washington issued a fresh warning recently about suspected Russian interference, while the EU passed new sanctions on several Moldovans.
Today Russia alleged there were “anomalies” in Moldova’s count for the presidential election and referendum, saying the country’s president must “prove” claims there had been foreign interference.
“The data that we are currently seeing leads to many, many questions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“What we are seeing is a kind of mechanical, hard to explain rate of increase of votes in favour of Sandu and in favour of the referendum participants who are for an orientation towards the European Union,” he said.
“These are quite serious accusations… If she (Sandu) did not receive votes due to some criminal gangs she must present evidence,” he said.
Police made hundreds of arrests in recent weeks after discovering an “unprecedented” vote-buying scheme that they say could taint up to a quarter of the ballots cast.
Police said millions of dollars from Russia aiming to corrupt voters were funnelled into the country by people affiliated to Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman and former politician.
Convicted in absentia last year for fraud, Shor regularly brands Moldova a “police state” and the West’s “obedient puppet”.
“You have crushingly failed,” Shor posted on social networks after the vote.
In addition to the suspected vote buying, hundreds of young people were found to have been trained in Russia and the Balkans to create “mass disorder” in Moldova, such as using tactics to provoke law enforcement, according to police.
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