PRO-EU challenger defeats Kremlin ally in Moldovan elections

MOLDOVA’S pro-eu opposition candidate has won a presidential run- off against one of Russia’s few remaining allies in former Soviet states.

Maia Sandu promised to maintain a “true balance” in foreign policy and “pragmatic dialogue with all countries, including Romania, Ukraine, European countries, Russia and the United States.”

Polling returns from the country of 3.5 million situated between Ukraine and EU member Romania showed Ms Sandu won 58 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s race against Igor Dodon, the Kremlin-backed incumbent.

Ms Sandu, 48, is an unlikely political leader. She owns a battered car and a Soviet-era, one-bedroom apartment, and does not plan to move to the official presidential residence. She has pledged to clean up Moldova’s notoriously corrupt government. “We need the state to work for citizens, not for thieves and corrupt officials,” she said.

The president’s powers in Moldova are limited so Ms Sandu, a former prime minister, faces an uphill battle to get reforms through in the parliament dominated by Mr Dodon’s allies. Yesterday, she pledged to seek a snap parliamentary election, telling Dozhd, a Russian TV channel, that her team is looking for legal grounds to call a new vote “fairly soon”.

Ms Sandu, who worked at the World

Bank in Washington before returning to Moldova in 2012, focused in her campaign on fighting corruption and building strong institutions rather than amplifying divisions between Russianleaning and pro-western voters.

SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, issued a rare statement last month, accusing the US of plotting riots to topple Mr Dodon. Ms Sandu’s convincing victory and her moderate rhetoric showed that there was no point in casting doubt on the election results.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, expressed hope yesterday that her “activities as head of the state would encourage a constructive development of ties between our countries.”