Moldova’s pro-European incumbent president, Maia Sandu, was largely re-elected on Sunday, November 3, for a second four-year term, thanks to the decisive mobilization of a rather young, urban and well-educated electorate, as well as a significant diaspora population settled in the European Union (EU). The near-definitive count for the run-off election stood at 55% of the vote for the incumbent president on Monday morning. She was competing against the candidate nominated by the Party of Socialists, Alexandr Stoianoglo, considered close to Moscow, who received 45% of the vote.
At least 300,000 Moldovans living abroad voted at polling stations opened in embassies and consulates, “a historic record” according to Moldova’s Central Electoral Commission, which reported a total of 3.3 million registered voters. Without these votes from the country’s diaspora, Stoianoglo would have narrowly won with 51% of the vote.
Two weeks earlier, Sandu had come out of the first round of the presidential election in the lead, with 42.49% and 656,852 votes. This had been a disappointing result, as she hoped to be re-elected without a second round. The second time, the pro-Western camp broadly mobilized their voters, reaching 910,000 votes, a total considerably higher than the 750,000 votes that were cast in favor of the country’s EU membership, in a referendum held on October 20, at the same time as the first round of the presidential election. In 2020, Sandu obtained 943,006 votes (57.72%) in the second round of voting, running against Socialist candidate Igor Dodon.
Read more Subscribers only A very narrow victory for EU membership in Moldova
The country received the news calmly. There were no scenes of jubilation outside the winning party’s campaign HQ, no honking horns or fireworks, as there had been four years ago throughout the streets of downtown Chisinau, a city that had voted at 58.5% in the president’s favor.
“I’m furious because there were only two polling stations open in Russia, while everyone was able to vote comfortably in Europe!” said Vasile Ciobanu, a 48-year-old mason, while returning home after a dinner with friends. “We needed to get Sandu out. Since she’s been in power, inflation has exploded and we have LGBT parades in the streets, protected by the police. We don’t want that here. Our brothers are the Russians, who are Orthodox like us,” he continued, gesturing wildly. The man, who claimed to be very religious, declared that, in his church, the priest had called for people to vote for Stoianoglo.
You have 57.73% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=67314f10dbf145769623057178239e22&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Fen%2Finternational%2Farticle%2F2024%2F11%2F04%2Fmoldova-s-pro-european-president-maia-sandu-re-elected-in-setback-for-kremlin_6731491_4.html&c=12116338092122314209&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-11-04 00:13:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
