Decide abroad. Results of the elections in Moldova

In the first round of the presidential elections in Moldova, the leader of the opposition Pro-European Action and Solidarity Party, Maia Sandu, won, while the incumbent head of state, Igor Dodon, took second place.

Presidential elections are taking place in neighboring Moldova. The situation there is somewhat similar to that in Ukraine. In the second round, the pro-Russian and pro-Western candidate will unite.

In the first round, the former premier Maia Sandu, who is oriented towards the West, won. The most surprising thing is that victory was brought to him by the votes of Moldovans who left the country and voted in foreign electoral districts. Within the country, current president Igor Dodon won. In the second round, the fight promises to be especially strong.

Correspondent.net talks about the situation in the elections in Moldova.

Competitors

Maia Sandu represents the pro-European opposition. In campaign, he is committed to the fight against corruption and European integration. Current President Dodon is in favor of developing ties with Russia and joining the Customs Union.

Four years ago, during his election campaign, Dodon even called Russian Crimea, which many people in Ukraine still cannot forgive.

In the first round, Sandu obtained 36.12% of the votes and Dodon, 32.61% of the votes.

Voter turnout was 42.7%, or about 1.2 million people, the lowest in the history of the Moldovan elections. One of the reasons was the situation with the coronavirus.

These same candidates met in the second round of the 2016 presidential election. Dodon then got ahead of Sanda.

Foreign

Sandu’s victory was brought by Moldovans living abroad. In the context of low voter turnout in the country, they broke all possible records. Almost 150,000 people voted abroad, or more than 12% of the voters who went to the polls in Moldova.

The activity was insane despite quarantines in many European countries. For the sake of Moldovans living abroad, the work of the sites took even several hours.

In total, in the Moldovan elections, 139 polling stations were opened abroad in 36 countries of the world.

But in Russia, Moldovans did not go to polling stations. Thus, overall, in the foreign constituency, Dodon won only 3.6% of the vote.

Sandu won the first round of the elections solely thanks to votes from abroad, where she was supported by 70% of the voters. But if you count the votes without foreign polling stations, Dodon would be the winner. In the second round, if Sandu wins, this situation will almost certainly repeat itself.

Each one has his own

Dodon has its own “foreign country”: Transnistria, not controlled by Chisinau, from where, as a rule, pro-Russian voters come to the elections in Moldova.

In this presidential election, 42 of these polling stations were opened exclusively to the voters of Transnistria. More than 250 thousand voters living in Transnistria are registered in the state registry. This is about 10% of Moldovans with voting rights in the controlled territory of the country. And since the gap between election winners in Moldova is often quite modest, this is a huge reserve. Even if only a fraction of the voters vote.

At the same time, the electoral preferences of the Pridnestrovians are completely unequivocal. Sanda is not seen there at all. In the Transnistrian regions, Dodon received 74%, more than twice as much as in the entire country. And here is a hidden reservation for a general victory in the elections.