{"id":2184,"date":"2024-10-21T07:01:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T07:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=2184"},"modified":"2024-10-21T07:01:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T07:01:23","slug":"tight-outcome-in-moldovas-pro-eu-public-referendum-and-presidential-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=2184","title":{"rendered":"Tight outcome in Moldova\u2019s pro-EU public referendum and presidential elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update:<\/strong>\u00a0After counting almost 99% of the votes, the referendum result is still uncertain, with a minor difference between ‘yes’ and ‘no’, but with ‘yes’ votes now in the lead – 50.08% vs 49.92%, according to Biziday.ro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Initial story:<\/strong> The referendum on Moldova\u2019s European Union membership indicated a tight balance between those opting in favor and against inking the accession process in the country\u2019s Constitution after counting the votes from 2,175 of the 2,219 polling stations: 50.11% \u2018no\u2019 votes versus 49.89% \u2018yes\u2019 votes, according to the country\u2019s central electoral commission.<\/p>\n

In the first ballot for the presidential elections, pro-EU president Maia Sandu was leading with 41.85% of the votes, followed by Socialist Party\u2019s Alexandr Stoianoglo (26.35%), independent politician Renato Usatii (13.76%), and former governor of Gagauzia Irina Vlah (5.46%).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if the public referendum ends with marginal support in favor of Moldova\u2019s EU accession, the tight result will justify the opposition\u2019s protests against the process. President Sandu repeatedly said that the EU accession requires broad support from the population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The turnout in the referendum exceeded 50%, well above the 33.3% threshold set by the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n

Separately, the political turmoil generated by the tight results of the constitutional referendum may help opposition parties keep their electoral base active for the second round of the presidential elections, where the combined electorates of the opposition candidates may surpass the pro-EU electorate.<\/p>\n

Several hours after the ballot closed and the preliminary results were predominantly against Moldova\u2019s EU membership, president Sandu accused that \u201ccriminal groups intended to buy 300,000 votes\u201d in an \u201cunprecedented attack to our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminal groups, backed by foreign forces, have attacked our country with lies and propaganda. We have evidence and information that a criminal group intended to buy 300,000 votes. This is an unprecedented fraud, the purpose of which is to compromise democracy. Their goal is to sow fear and panic in society,\u201d president Maia Sandu stated.<\/p>\n

Fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, who is hidden in Moscow, with the support of Russian authorities, has indeed carried out a broad and complex campaign against president Sandu and the pro-EU referendum. But the two candidates informally backed by Shor (Victoria Furtuna and Vasile Tarlev) are not among the first four ones, and they obtained 4.5% and 3.2% of the votes, respectively.<\/p>\n

iulian@romania-insider.com<\/em><\/p>\n

(Photo source:\u00a0Inquam Photos \/\u00a0Elena\u00a0Covalenco<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update:\u00a0After counting almost 99% of the votes, the referendum result is still uncertain, with a minor difference between ‘yes’ and ‘no’, but with ‘yes’ votes now in the lead – 50.08% vs 49.92%, according to Biziday.ro. Initial story: The referendum on Moldova\u2019s European Union membership indicated a tight balance between those opting in favor and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}