Maia Sandu Wins Reelection
November 4, 2024
With 99.86% of the vote counted Moldova’s Central Election Commission (CEC) reports a victory for Maia Sandu. The incumbent president beat Alexandr Stoianoglo 55.41% to 44.59% in an election that saw historic voter turnout.
The victory marks the first time that a popularly elected president in Moldova has won reelection.
Stoianoglo won around 32,000 more votes than Sandu within Moldova but an unprecedented turnout of more than 320,000 voters in the diaspora turned the election in her favor. Diaspora voters broke around 83% for President Sandu. Much of Stoianoglo’s lead in Moldova came from high turnout from Transnistria with more than 26,000 voters crossing the river to vote and favoring Stoianoglo by over 79%.
By late evening the close margin in Moldova and the huge diaspora turnout made it clear that the President would be re-elected. PAS campaign HQ celebrated and Maia Sandu addressed the voters saying:
"Moldova, you are a winner! Today, dear Moldovans, you offered a lesson in democracy, worthy of being written in history textbooks. Today you saved Moldova! In our choice for a dignified future, no one lost. Freedom, truth and justice have won! Moldova managed to show its will and power through the vote of each of us. We proved that united we can defeat those who wanted to bring us to our knees. Dear Moldovans, I thank each and every one of you for voting, regardless of your choice. This means that in your souls you carry the love of the country. I thank all Moldovans, from villages and cities, from small towns, from big towns." (…)
"Moldova was under an unprecedented attack for the history of the whole of Europe - dirty money, illegal vote buying, the involvement in the electoral processes of hostile forces from outside the country and criminal groups, lies, the induction of hatred and fear in our society. Our people united and freedom and citizens won. Peace and hope for a better life won! You have shown that nothing can stand in the way of the power of the people who choose to have their say by voting!"
She also spoke in Russian adding:
"Dear Moldovans, I am grateful to each of you who came to the elections. I heard your voice: both those who supported me and those who voted for Mr. Stoianoglo. I pledge to be president for all of you. In our choice of a dignified future, no one will lose. We may have different points of view, speak different languages, but we all want peace, mutual understanding and a dignified life for our children. This is my main goal for Moldova in the coming years. We need to unite society,"
Moldova’s oldest voter at the election was Constantin Cojocaru, aged 105. He first voted when Moldova was part of Romania and was later deported to Siberia for 9 years during Soviet occupation. Cojocaru did not vote in the first round because of health problems and difficulty walking, but he came out in round 2 saying:
"It was a bit difficult, but I voted, I did my duty. I can't wait to go to Europe."
International Reaction
President Sandu received warm congratulations from leaders all across Europe. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen wrote:
"Congratulations, dear Maia Sandu, on your victory. It takes a rare kind of strength to overcome the challenges you've encountered in this election campaign. I am happy to continue collaborating with you for a European future of Moldova and its citizens"
President Zelenskyy also congratulated her saying:
"Congratulations to Maia Sandu for winning the presidential elections in Moldova. Ukraine supports the European choice of the Moldovan people and is ready to work together to strengthen our partnership.”
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili also congratulated Sandu saying “Your victory is our victory!” but noted how important the diaspora was in the vote saying:
“Moldovan elections are the best “evidence” of stolen Georgia’s elections: despite similar Russian interference and massive rigging, Moldova was saved by 300.000 diaspora voters… our 1000.000 strong diaspora was barred. only 34 000 were “allowed” to vote.”
Interference and Incidents
In the last 2 days leading up to the election the stead drumbeat of disinformation and foreign interference seemed to reach a fever pitch. Voters all across the country received emails from a fake address, masquerading as an official communication from PAS, promising 1500 lei to those who vote for Maia Sandu. Journalists also began receiving phone calls with a looping recording saying:
"We know where you live, we know what editorial office you work for, we can kill you. Choose Maia Sandu and save your life,"
Many journalists reported receiving the calls every few minutes. You can listen to a recording of one such call here.
Journalist Alina Radu, editor of ZdG also announced that she and her family were the subject of mass online abuse and threats following the release of the ZdG investigations. She said that they tracked some paid posts threatening her daughter to a Shor associate and noted that she will be reporting these to law enforcement.
Election Day
On election day multiple reports came in from election observers showing illegal organized transportation of voters in Istanbul, Belarus and elsewhere. One video allegedly showed a full plane of Moldovan voters, all holding their passports up to be filmed. Similar charter flights were allegedly organized to bring voters from Russia to Belarus, Turkey and elsewhere.
Speaker of Parliament Igor Grosu spoke about the incidents saying:
"We are recording charter flights from Minsk and Istanbul. This is not about regular flights or a civil initiative. These are mass transportations organized to influence the elections,"
He also spoke of mass organized transportation of voters from Transnistria to polling stations saying:
"On the bridge over the Dniester, you can see people who were forced, manipulated, corrupted and even intimidated to participate in the elections. This is déjà vu - we saw this before, when the Transnistrian regime, far from democratic processes and European integration, interfered in our elections,"
The Rezina-Rybnitsa bridge that he was speaking of was the site of one of the most reported on incidents of the day. Transnistrian residents coming to vote got stuck in a huge traffic jam on and around the bridge with some cars waiting for 3 or more hours to get across. Police reported that they had stopped traffic on the bridge when a man carrying a suspicious box refused to show its contents to them. Shortly after police announced everything was safe and re-opened the bridge someone called in a bomb threat against the bridge forcing its closure again.
Other bomb threats were called in against polling stations, including one in Varnitsa set up for Transnistrian residents to vote at. Other stations in Frankfurt, Liverpool and Northampton similarly were forced to temporarily close due to bomb threats.
The Security and Information Service (SIS) also reported a massive DDoS cyberattack against the voter information site voteaza.md. The site was temporarily down during the day.
A Clear Result
In spite of interference and continued attempts at voter bribery Moldovan voters turned out en-masse and delivered a clear second term mandate for President Maia Sandu. In the coming week we’ll return to the election, the cases of interference and try and provide some context and analysis of the overall campaign and outcomes. But for now, Moldova’s tumultuous election is over. The people have spoken and Moldova has enshrined the goal of EU accession in its constitution and re-elected Maia Sandu.
The diaspora is looking out for Moldova. I always think of the old song from WWI — How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?— hopefully many of the diaspora will be able to return and develop the country in person, but in the meantime they’re learning more & more about democracy & rule of law in Europe, etc. (And about the opposite in Russia.)
This is such good news. Thanks for sharing David. I didn't realize how much I was holding my breath waiting for the results. I see a promising positive approach going forward for Moldova. The diaspora makes a difference and as stated they see a bigger picture. I'm happy they came out to vote in such meaningful numbers. So many similarities to another election coming up. I'm hoping for the same support for those who see a bigger picture and are willing to show up and make a difference. So yes, I am still holding my breath for another couple of days. Feeling very thankful for the link you provide for us so far from a country we have come to love from our time living there. We appreciate you!