Voting ends in Moldova's presidential runoff with turnout of over 54%

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) — Voting in Moldova's presidential runoff ended as more than half of the country's electorate headed to the polls since early Sunday.

Voting which began at 7 a.m. local time (0500GMT) continued until 9 p.m. across 2,219 polling stations, 231 of which were located abroad in 37 countries.

According to Moldova's Central Election Commission (CEC), more than 1.6 million of the country's citizens have cast their ballots as the voting ended, corresponding to just over 54% of the electorate.

The CEC said that preliminary results would be presented in a briefing at 10 p.m. (2000GMT).

The runoff follows an initial round of voting held two weeks ago, in which President Maia Sandu, viewed as pro-Western, fell short of securing a majority for a second term.

Alexandr Stoianoglo, Moldova’s former prosecutor general, came second during the first round of voting held on Oct. 20, becoming Sandu's rival in the runoff.

The first round of the presidential election was held simultaneously with a referendum in which voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment to set Moldova on a path toward EU membership.

However, both the election and referendum have been contentious, with Sandu accusing “criminal groups” allegedly backed by "foreign forces hostile to our national interests" of attempting to disrupt the country’s democratic process and keep it "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. Their intention is to spread fear and panic in the society," Sandu said on X.

In response to the accusations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov challenged Sandu to provide concrete evidence of the alleged interference.