General Elections in Moldova: Pro-Western Party Leads

In the parliamentary elections in Moldova, a clear victory for the pro-European PAS party led by President Sandu is becoming apparent. Your adversary, Dodon, prevented government formation for the first months.

The citizens of the ex-Soviet Republic of Moldova (Moldova) elected a new parliament in a historic vote – and placed their faith in the incumbent President Maia Sandu. Your pro-European centre-right party PAS comes in for over 48 percent of the vote according to partial results. The coalition of socialists and communists led by former Kremlin-backed President Igor Dodon got just 31 percent of the vote.

The distribution of 101 seats is largely a question of whether Moldova can lead to the European Union that Sandu is striving for. The troubled country that borders the European Union state of Romania has been torn between Russia and Europe since its declaration of independence 30 years ago.

Russia continues to have great influence

Sandu called for an early vote after pro-Russian forces around Dodon prevented the formation of a new government for months. So far, Dodan’s supporters have a majority in the parliament in Chisinau.

Russia has great influence in the small country bordering Ukraine – particularly in the Transnistria region, which splits off from Moldova and where Russian forces have been stationed since the early 1990s. About 260,000 people from the separatist area were also entitled to vote in Sunday’s election. Recently, Moscow lamented the “unprecedented interference” by the US and the European Union in Moldova’s internal affairs.