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Moldovans voted on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine.
The elections are a test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term.
Police made hundreds of arrests after discovering a massive vote-buying scheme, warning this week that up to a quarter of the ballots cast in the country of 2.6 million could be tainted by Russian cash.
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Sandu, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
She has repeatedly sounded the alarm about Russian efforts to interfere in the vote — a claim Moscow has rejected.
“We categorically reject these accusations,” Russian state news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Monday.
Washington issued a fresh warning this week about suspected Russian interference, while the EU passed new sanctions on several Moldovans.
“I have come to cast my vote for prosperity, peace and wellbeing in our country,” said Olga Cernega, a 60-year-old economist, after voting in freezing weather in the capital Chisinau.
Another voter, Ghenadie, who declined to give his last name, said he was worried by what he saw as the country’s “western” drift and thought the government was “making the situation worse” economically.
An hour from there in the town of Varnita, a special polling booth was set up for inhabitants of the breakaway pro-Russian region of Transnistria.
Nicolai, 33, an IT specialist, came to vote with his 5-year-old son.
He said he voted “yes” in the referendum and for Sandu as president.
“I want a life in a free and safe European country,” he said, declining to give his full name to avoid repercussion in the state of Transnistria.