Moldova holds parliamentary elections hit by claims of Russian interference

Most polls task the governing pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity successful the lead.

Polls person opened successful Moldova, wherever citizens are voting successful parliamentary elections that could find whether the state moves distant from its pro-Ukrainian stance and its plans to articulation the European Union, towards Russia’s orbit.

Leading up to Sunday’s vote, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned of Russian interference, saying Moscow is spending “hundreds of millions” of euros arsenic portion of an alleged “hybrid war” to effort to prehend power, which helium described arsenic “the last conflict for our country’s future.”

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Russia has denied Moldova’s claims that it has been waging a disinformation run and looking to bargain votes and disturbance unrest.

On Sunday, polling booths opened astatine 7am (04:00 GMT). Polling volition adjacent astatine 9pm (18:00 GMT), with results expected aboriginal successful the day.

The ballot volition elite 101 members, followed by the president nominating a premier minister, mostly from the starring enactment oregon bloc, who tin past effort to signifier a caller government.

Ahead of the election, astir polls projected Recean’s pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), which has led the state since 2021, successful the lead.

But the polls bash not relationship for Moldova’s ample diaspora, and astir a 3rd of voters stay undecided.

The pro-Russian Patriot Electoral Bloc, a radical of governmental parties, has capitalised connected elector unease implicit economical turmoil, the dilatory gait of reforms and issues worsened by what officials accidental has been wide disinformation.

Among the parties successful the pro-Russian bloc are the populist Our Party, which wants what it calls a “balanced overseas policy” betwixt East and West, and the Alternativa Bloc, which has claimed to beryllium pro-European, but critics person argued that it seeks person ties to Moscow.

Geographically, Moldova is landlocked betwixt Ukraine and EU subordinate Romania.

The state has, successful caller years, moved westwards successful attaining campaigner presumption to the EU successful 2022, conscionable aft Russia invaded Ukraine.

Iulian Cazacu, a 26-year-old mill idiosyncratic successful Balti, told the Reuters quality bureau that helium would astir apt not vote, disappointed by the result of 2 erstwhile votes.

“There person been assorted leaders, and not a azygous normal, capable alteration that would let maine to say, ‘Look, beingness successful the state has go good,'” Cazacu said.

Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean attends a rally of the Action and Solidarity Party successful Chisinau connected September 26, 2025 [AFP]

On Friday, President Maia Sandu called the ballot the country’s “most consequential election”.

“Its result volition determine whether we consolidate our ideology and articulation the EU, oregon whether Russia drags america backmost into a grey zone, making america a determination risk,” Sandu wrote connected X.

Recean, successful the meantime, stressed the menace from Russia: “I telephone connected each Moldovan astatine location and crossed Europe: We cannot alteration what Russia does, but we tin alteration what we bash arsenic a people,” helium said. “Turn interest into mobilisation and thoughtful enactment … Help halt their schemes.”