Moldova's Sandu promises change, Russia queries result
Moldovan President Maia Sandu has promised to ring the changes after narrowly winning a run-off presidential vote, an acknowledgement of the fragile foothold her pro-Western forces have before a parliamentary election in 2025.
Sandu, who has pressed the ex-Soviet state's bid to join the European Union, defeated a former prosecutor-general backed by a traditionally pro-Russian party in a vote marred by allegations of election meddling by Moscow, which it denies.
The election also exposed underlying public grievances, and Sandu, who ended up with 55.33 per cent of the overall vote, won only because of strong backing from Moldovans voting from overseas.
Within the country's borders, she lost by a narrow margin.
"I fully understand that this vote was also driven by the need for change - changes that society has been awaiting. I want you to know - I have heard all voices, including the critical ones," Sandu said in a victory speech.
She pledged to be a "president for all of you", asking citizens to look past their grudges and dissatisfaction and unite to protect the country, which she said had been targeted by mass interference at the election.
US President Joe Biden congratulated Sandu on her victory, saying Russia had failed to undermine Moldova's democratic institutions and election processes.
The Moldovan people, Biden said, had "chosen to pursue a path aligned with Europe and democracies everywhere".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov delivered a scathing attack on the conduct of Sunday's election at his daily briefing with reporters.
He said hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia had not been allowed to vote - unlike Moldovans living in the West, whose votes were critical to Sandu's victory.
"These elections were neither democratic nor fair," Peskov said.
"As for Ms Sandu - you know that she is not, in our understanding, the president of her country - because in the country itself, the majority of the population did not vote for her, and we are talking about a very, very divided society. These contradictions will certainly continue," he said.
Russian's Foreign Ministry earlier described the Moldovan contest as "the most undemocratic election campaign in all the years of Moldovan independence".
The Socialist Party that backed her rival in the contest, Alexandr Stoianoglo, said it did not view her presidency as legitimate, calling her the "president of the diaspora" and itself alleging widespread falsification.
Police and security officials have said millions of dollars of money poured in to buy people's votes, part of a plot by Moscow and pro-Russian fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor to skew the election. Shor also denies any wrongdoing.
As Sunday's vote unfolded, Sandu's security adviser pointed to reports of Moldovans being brought on organised transport from Moscow to polling stations abroad as well as bomb hoaxes at European polling centres possibly aimed at disrupting voting.
Sandu's victory prompted a sigh of relief in Brussels, a week after Georgia, another former Soviet state seeking EU membership, re-elected a ruling party regarded in the West as increasingly pro-Russian.
