Moldova: Everything Ready for Second Round of Presidential Elections
There are fears of low voter turnout, and outgoing President Maia Sandu has urged voters to go to the polls to exercise “their right to choose”
Moldova, one of 15 former Soviet republics on the border between Ukraine and Romania, began a day of “electoral silence” on Saturday, November 2, and 2.4 million voters will be called to the polls again on Sunday for the second round of the presidential election.
On November 3, the contenders will be incumbent President Maia Sandu, an openly pro-Western and pro-European politician, and Alexandr Stoianoglo, one of the leaders of the Socialist Party of Moldova (PSRM), which is on a rapprochement stance with Russia. In the first round of elections held on October 20, Sandu managed to get the support of 41.88% of voters, while Stoianoglo got 26.37% of votes.
Voter turnout in the first round was quite low: only 51.4 percent. For this reason, on Friday, even before the start of the day of “electoral silence,” Sandu published a video message on social networks, in which she urged Moldovan voters to go to the polls to exercise “their right to choose.”
But representatives of the community of Moldovan citizens in Russia, which numbers more than 340,000 eligible voters, accused the authorities in Chisinau and the Moldovan Election Commission of “excluding the absolute majority of Moldovan voters, residents of Russia, from voting in the first round.”
For comparison, which illustrates very well the manipulation of voting by the Moldovan authorities: in Italy, where 109 thousand Moldovan voters live and work, 60 polling stations will be set up so that Moldovan citizens can vote, while in Russia there will be only 5 polling stations for more than 340 000 Moldovan voters.
Moldova’s Central Election Commission did not respond to the allegations and warned that on Saturday and Sunday (November 2-3, 2024) ,”no electoral activities and materials may be conducted or distributed.”
