Half of Moldovans voted “yes” in Sunday’s referendum on the country’s EU membership aspirations, early results showed, putting the small east-west country on a path to joining the single market despite pressure from Russia.
By 04:00 CET on Monday, with 97.66 percent of votes counted, 50 percent of Moldovans had voted “yes,” according to results posted on the website of Moldova’s central election commission.
The final result is still uncertain. A few hours earlier, partial results showed that 57 percent of voters were not ready to commit to joining the EU.
Analysts say ballots from the mostly pro-European diaspora were counted near the end, giving the “yes” campaign a last-minute boost.
Although far from a landslide, the results favor incumbent pro-European President Maja Sandu, who ran in Sunday’s election to retain her position. On Monday morning, she received 41.91 percent of the vote after 97.7 percent of the votes were counted.
The referendum and presidential election are seen as a test of the deeply divided country’s willingness to maintain close ties with Russia or embark on a potentially lengthy process of joining the European Union.
Sandu’s main rival in the presidential election, former chief prosecutor Aleksandar Stojanoglo, won 26.32 percent of the vote, setting the stage for a Nov. 3 runoff in the impoverished ex-Soviet southeastern European country.
The election goes to a second round if no candidate exceeds the 50 percent mark.
In an announcement to Moldovans on Sunday night, Sandu said there was “clear evidence” that criminal groups working with foreign powers hostile to Moldova’s interests sought to buy 300,000 votes, which she called an “unprecedented fraud”.
“Their goal was to undermine the democratic process. Their intention was to spread fear and panic in society. We are waiting for the final results, and we will respond with firm decisions,” she said.
Ahead of the election, the vote was overshadowed by a series of election meddling allegations from fugitive Russian-based tycoon Ilan Shor. Moscow has denied interference, while Shore denies wrongdoing.
This month, Moldovan police accused Shor, in absentia serving a prison sentence for fraud and theft, of trying to pay a network of at least 130,000 voters to vote “no” and support “our candidate” in the election.
Shor openly offered on social media to pay Moldovans to convince others to vote a certain way and said it was a legitimate use of the money he earned.
In the early hours of Monday morning, he said that Moldovans voted against the referendum.
“Today I congratulate you, you lost the battle,” he added, addressing Sand simply as Maja.
Ahead of the vote, Moldovan authorities took down online sources they said contained disinformation, announced they had uncovered a program in Russia to train Moldovans to organize mass riots and launched criminal proceedings against Shor’s allies, Reuters reports.
