[ad_1]
Polling stations have closed in Moldova in the election between the pro-European opposition candidate Maia Sandu and President Igor Dodon, with close ties to the Kremlin.
Early election forecasts from polling stations show Sandu leading, according to Reuters news agency.
According to the forecast has received about 55 percent of the vote, while President Dodon has received just over 45 percent, Reuters reports.
In the first round, he received 36 percent of the vote, while President Dodon received 33 percent.
Aspiring Sandu has worked at the World Bank and for a brief stint last year was Prime Minister of Moldova before being removed from office in a vote of no confidence.
“We have the opportunity to punish those who stole them, pushed them into poverty and forced them to leave their homes,” Sandu said at the end of the election campaign.
Tone mode of the current president Dodon was equally close during the electoral campaign:
“We will lose our country if we show weakness,” he said, warning of vote rigging.
Dissatisfaction was evident among many voters who were interviewed in connection with the election.
– Corruption is everywhere, in health care, within the legal system, says Vikoria, a lawyer who has voted for Sandu, but who suspects electoral fraud.
– The EU has invested a lot of money here, we are a small country, and with all the money we should be millionaires, but we have not seen money, we have not seen results, said voter Sergei Jantouane who voted “against Dodon”, according to AFP . .
Moldova It officially has about 3.5 million inhabitants, but no one really knows how many live in the country, one of the poorest in the region, as many have left. The share of Moldovans, mainly in Italy and Germany, is high.
The almost evenly distributed division is like the geography of the country, and the borders are quite typical of the area where the great powers drew and drew countries.
Moldova borders Ukraine to the east and Romania to the west, the language is similar to Romanian, but the alliance has previously been with Russian Moscow. The country was part of the Soviet Union before its collapse.
There is also the separatist region of Transnistria along the eastern border – the region was hit by a brief civil war in 1992 – and which is a continuing hotbed of unrest where mainly Russian-speaking separatists see themselves as independent from the capital , Chisinau.
– Regardless of whether Sandu or Dodon wins, there will be protests, predicts the saleswoman Sandra in Chisinau.
