Moldovans have voted by a razor-thin majority in favour of securing the country’s path toward European Union membership, electoral data showed.
The ballot nearly caused a major setback for Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu, who accused “criminal groups” of trying to undermine the vote.
With 99.41% of the 1.4 million votes counted in the EU referendum held on Sunday, the “Yes” vote stood at 50.39%, to 49.61% who voted “No”, according to the Central Electoral Commission.
The “No” vote had looked to be ahead right until the last few thousand votes were counted from the country’s large diaspora.
A loss would have been a political disaster for the pro-Western government, which strongly supported the pro-EU campaign.
After about 90% of the votes were counted, Ms Sandu said: “Criminal groups, working together with foreign forces hostile to our national interests, have attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda, using the most disgraceful means to keep our citizens and our nation trapped in uncertainty and instability.
“We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes — a fraud of unprecedented scale.
“Their objective was to undermine a democratic process.”
The vote was held amid ongoing claims by Moldovan authorities that Moscow has intensified a “hybrid war” campaign to destabilise the country and derail its EU path.
The allegations include funding pro-Moscow opposition groups, spreading disinformation, meddling in local elections and backing a major vote-buying scheme.
In the presidential race that was held at the same time, Ms Sandu won the first round with 42% of the vote in a field of 11, but failed to win an outright majority.
She will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a Russia-friendly former prosecutor general who outperformed polls with around 26% of the vote, in a runoff on November 3.
By the time polls closed at 9pm local time on Sunday, more than 1.5 million voters — about 51% of eligible voters – had cast ballots, according to the Central Electoral Commission.
Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told The Associated Press that polls might have “overestimated the pro-EU feeling” inside Moldova, which would have failed to pass without votes from outside the country.
“It’s going to be particularly problematic because … it’s going to feed into narratives that are pushed by the Kremlin and pro-Russian forces,” he said.
US national security spokesman John Kirby echoed Russian interference concerns this week, saying in a statement that “Russia is working actively to undermine Moldova’s election and its European integration”.
Moscow has repeatedly denied it is interfering in Moldova.
