Moldova votes in divisive parliamentary election
CHISINAU: Moldovans began voting yesterday in an election that reflects the tiny ex-Soviet republic’s longstanding division between those seeking closer ties with Moscow and those backing moves to join the European Union.
Wedged between Ukraine and Romania, Moldova — one of Europe’s poorest countries — has struggled to find its place since gaining independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
The parliamentary vote is viewed as a three-way race between the pro-Russian Socialist party of President Igor Dodon, the ruling Democratic party and a pro-European alliance.
While many in the country of 3.5 million want to maintain close ties with Moscow, others seek to follow the example of Romania — with which Moldova shares a language and long history — and look west to the European Union.
Dodon’s pro-Moscow party is leading in recent opinion polls, advocating for Moldova to join Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union over the EU.
The alliance of pro-European parties, which favours joining the EU and NATO, comes second.
In third place is the centre-left Democratic Party led by powerful oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, which holds a majority in the current parliament and leads the government. It has pursued a balanced approach between Moscow and the EU.
No party is likely to gain the majority needed to form a government, and analysts fear a period of instability for the country after the vote.
Fuelling the tense climate in the last days of campaigning, Russian authorities on Friday accused the ruling party leader Plahotniuc of running a vast money-laundering scheme between 2013 and 2014.
His party denounced this as Moscow’s “interference” in the vote.
Moldova signed an association agreement with the EU in 2014, but last year Brussels reduced its financial aid to the country citing a “deterioration of the rule of law” — a reference mainly to the country’s struggle with corruption.
The EU adopted a resolution in November 2018 saying the Moldovan state was “captured by oligarchic interests”.
Moldova last year ranked 117 out of 180 nations in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
As well as seeking to keep Moldova in its sphere of influence, Moscow has long backed separatists in the country’s Russian-speaking breakaway region of Transnistria.
“Of course, Russia is not indifferent to the formation of the Moldovan parliament,” Putin said after a meeting with Dodon in Moscow last month.
Polls opened at 7.00am (0500 GMT) and are scheduled to close at 9.00pm, with results expected to be announced Monday morning.
Authorities opened 123 polling stations for Moldovan citizens voting abroad. — AFP