By Tom Balmforth and Felix Hoske
CHISINAU (Reuters) -A Moldovan security official accused Russia on Sunday of “massive interference” as Moldovans voted in a tightly contested presidential election that could see Moscow claw back influence in a country drawing closer to the European Union.
Pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu, who has accelerated the nation’s push to leave Moscow’s orbit and join the EU, faces Alexandr Stoianoglo, an ex-prosecutor general backed by the traditionally pro-Russian Socialist Party.
The fortunes of Sandu, who set Moldova on the long path of EU accession talks in June, is being closely watched in Brussels a week after Georgia, another ex-Soviet state seeking membership, re-elected a ruling party regarded in the West as increasingly pro-Russian.
Moldova’s future has been in the spotlight since Russia in 2022 began its full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine to the east.
“We’re seeing massive interference by Russia in our electoral process … an effort with high potential to distort the outcome,” Sandu’s national security adviser Stanislav Secrieru wrote on X.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which has denied past allegations of meddling, as Moldova has accused Ilan Shor, a fugitive oligarch living in Russia, of spending millions of dollars to pay off voters to oppose Sandu. He denies wrongdoing.
Stoianoglo says he supports EU integration, but also wants to develop ties with Russia in the national interest. He wants to renegotiate cheap Russian gas supplies and said he would meet with President Vladimir Putin if Moldovans wanted it.
“I voted for a free, stable and blossoming Moldova that isn’t standing with its hand out, but develops in harmony based on relations with the West and East,” he said after casting his ballot.
Sunday’s results will set the tone for parliamentary elections next year when Sandu’s party may struggle to retain its majority and that will determine the political slant of the future government.
“Today is a crucial day for us… we go in one direction or the other. We didn’t have such an important day in the last 30 years,” said Mihai David, 58, who voted in Chisinau.
“My son is in Germany, and I’m happy about it. I was there and it’s much better and we want it to be the same here,” said Maria Fefilova, 68, a pensioner.
Stoianoglo’s East-West balancing rhetoric contrasts with Sandu’s four years in power, during which ties with the Kremlin have unravelled, Moscow’s diplomats have been expelled and she has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has said that her government is “Russophobic”.
Sandu portrays Stoianoglo as the Kremlin’s man and a political Trojan horse, painting Sunday’s vote as a choice between a bright future in the EU by 2030 and one of uncertainty and instability.
Stoianoglo says that is untrue and that she has failed to look out for the interests of ordinary Moldovans. He accuses Sandu of divisive politics in a country that has a Romanian-speaking majority and large Russian-speaking minority.
Polling stations close at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT).
MEDDLING ALLEGATIONS
Security official Secrieru cited reports of Moldovans being transported to vote in an organised and illegal way from Moldova’s pro-Moscow breakaway region of Transdniestria where Russia has soldiers stationed as peacekeepers.
There are no polling stations in the region that Moldovan authorities do not control. Voters have to travel to Moldovan-controlled territory to vote, but do so under their own steam.
By 11 a.m., turnout for the region was already higher than it was for the whole of the first round on Oct. 20, Secrieru said.
The police have cracked down to try to avoid a repeat of what they said was a vast vote-buying scheme deployed by Shor in the first round and a referendum on the EU’s aspirations that was held the same day.
Sandu has said the meddling affected the Oct. 20 results and that Shor sought to buy the votes of 300,000 people, more than 10% of the population.
A Moldovan government source said Chisinau notified several EU nations that it believed Russia would try to disrupt voting by Moldovan expatriates at polling stations in their countries.
The source, who asked not to be identified, said polling stations in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania and the United States might be targeted by disruption including through the use of bomb hoaxes.
Moldovans living in the West are typically pro-European and more likely to support Sandu, who has championed Moldova’s effort to join the 27-nation bloc by 2030.
The EU referendum delivered a slender win of 50.35% for the pro-EU camp. Sandu won 42% of the vote in the first round. Stoianoglo came second with 26%.
Stoianoglo is expected to benefit from protest votes against Sandu’s handling of the economy in the poor agricultural nation of fewer than 3 million people.
Moldova struggled with the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and the effects of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of neighboring Ukraine. That sparked a huge influx of refugees and sharply reduced Russian gas supplies, causing high inflation.
In Gagauzia, a largely pro-Russian southern autonomous region, a dozen voters polled by Reuters outside a polling station suggested or said outright that they voted for Stoianoglo.
“We’re a neutral country and we don’t need the European Union. For the last four years, we haven’t seen anything from our president… The prices are high, everything is expensive, everything,” said Dmitry, 57, a communal worker.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Alexander Tanas; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Toby Chopra and Barbara Lewis)
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