CHISINAU -- Moldova was on a knife edge as the country awaits the outcome of a parliamentary election key in determining whether the country will remain on its pro-European path or veer back toward Russia's sphere of influence.
Over 1.5 million Moldovans voted in the elections on September 28 amid widespread reports of campaign meddling by the Kremlin.
By the time polls closed at 9 p.m., around 52 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots, the Central Electoral Commission reported.
Early preliminary results show Moldova's ruling pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) had a slight lead over the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc.
But with only 28 percent of the ballots counted, and the country's influential diaspora abroad yet to be included, the results are likely to swing sharply as returns come in.
The pivotal vote will elect a new 101-seat parliament, after which President Maia Sandu nominates a prime minister, usually from the leading party or bloc, which can then try to form a new government.
The Ukraine conflict, Europe's largest and deadliest since World War II, has hit Moldova's economy hard, disrupting trade and driving up energy prices to trigger a spike in inflation.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin's online army of disinformation bots has used fake accounts and networks, often AI-generated, to flood social media with pro-Russian narratives and unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
The local human rights watchdog Promo-LEX reported hundreds of election incidents, including group voting, electoral advertising inside polling stations, organized voter transportation, and breaches of voting secrecy.
Bomb threats at several polling stations inside and outside Moldova were reported throughout the day. The incidents occurred in Italy, Romania, Spain, and the United States.
Over 240,000 people have already been reported to have voted outside the country, which marks a record result for the Moldovan diaspora.
In her address published on social media, Sandu said Russia’s plans "can only be stopped by the honest vote of Moldovans around the world."
"Russia poses a danger to our democracies. Our democracy is young and fragile, but that does not mean that states with longer democracies are not in danger. We want to live in a democracy," Sandu said earlier, after casting her ballot.
"Today, in our country, democracy is in the hands of Moldovans. Only they can save the Republic of Moldova," she added.
The contest pits Sandu's ruling Action and Solidarity party (PAS) against the Patriotic Electoral Bloc, an alliance of pro-Russian, Soviet-nostalgic parties.
The Socialists are led by Igor Dodon, a former Moldovan president whom Sandu defeated in a 2020 presidential election and who has long maintained close ties with Moscow. He has referred to the current democratically elected government as a "criminal regime."
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Moldova of "anti-Russian hysteria" and has denied it is interfering in what Sandu has called the "most consequential election" in her country's history.
"The Kremlin is trying to create such a tense situation in which it could manipulate public opinion or influence the results," Alexei Tulbure, former Moldovan ambassador to the United Nations and the Council of Europe, told Current Time.
"Moldova is an important ally of Ukraine. It is an important logistics hub for Ukraine... Can you imagine if a hostile state appeared on the western Ukrainian border? It would weaken Kyiv's position.... Even if there were no direct attacks on Ukraine from there, Ukraine would still increase its military presence in the west to guarantee its security."
Heightening tensions, Moldovan police and prosecutors on September 22 detained 74 people on suspicion of preparing mass unrest. The groups was reportedly trained in Serbia -- a key European ally of Russia -- in destabilization tactics.
Investigators say that between June and September groups of Moldovans aged 19-45 traveled to Serbia, where Russian instructors taught them how to break through police cordons, resist security forces, and use rubber batons, handcuffs, and even firearms.
Some reportedly entered Serbia under the guise of pilgrimages to Orthodox churches, only to be recruited for training in exchange for 400 euros ($470) per trip.
The days preceding the elections also marked the exclusion of two pro-Russian parties -- the Heart of Moldova and Moldova Mare (Greater Moldova) -- from participating in this weekend's vote.
Moldova's election authority imposed the restrictions following searches that led to allegations of voter bribery, illegal party financing, and money laundering.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told RFE/RL that Moldova's government should be lauded for being "resilient and capable of fighting back the forces that would like to see this country going away from the European path or to see the European Union fail.”
Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries, secured EU candidate status in 2022 and opened accession talks last year after firmly aligning itself with its neighbor, Ukraine, following Russia's unprovoked invasion in 2022, and joining the EU sanctions regime against Moscow.
The drive to accession has been complicated by several factors, including the Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transdniester that lies between Ukraine and Moldova's eastern border.
The territory, which lies on the eastern bank of the Dniester River, has Russian troops on its soil and has governed its own affairs -- with Moscow’s backing --- since a war that erupted as the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s.
