Moldovans will head to the polls Sunday for a parliamentary election fraught with claims of Russian interference.
The vote could decide the country’s geopolitical future: a stark choice between East and West.
Landlocked between Ukraine and European Union member Romania, Moldova has pursued a westward path toward the EU in recent years, but Sunday’s ballot 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’s orbit.
The race pits the ruling pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), which has held a strong parliamentary majority since 2021, against several key Russia-friendly opponents.
The lack of viable pro-European partners has left a lot of uncertainty over potential outcomes in the pivotal ballot.
If PAS fails to win a majority on Sunday, “it would mean an end to EU integration,” Igor Grosu said, the PAS leader and speaker of parliament. “It would mean dependence, halting all justice reforms, infrastructure projects, everything … there is no middle option.”
“All our efforts and messages are about mobilising to win a parliamentary majority,” he added.
Besides voter turnout, the outcome of Sunday’s high-stakes ballot might depend on how effective Moldovan authorities have been in their cat-and-mouse race to outwit Russia’s alleged “hybrid war” – the aim of which they say is to derail the country’s EU path.
Moldova’s Prime Minister, Dorin Recean, warned that Russia is spending hundreds of millions of euros to try to “seize power in Chisinau” in a campaign he described as “increasingly radical.”
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.
Modovan 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 “has accomplices here in Moldova,” describing them as people “willing to sell out their country for money.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied meddling in Moldova. In a statement on Thursday, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed allegations of Russian interference in Moldova’s elections as “anti-Russian” and “unsubstantiated.”
Sunday’s vote will also be held less than a year after Moldovans voted narrowly in favour of securing the country’s 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.
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.
