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Ruling party decisively victorious in parliamentary election widely viewed as a choice between Europe and Russia.

Moldova’s pro-Western ruling party has decisively won a parliamentary election which was plagued by claims of Russian interference and was widely seen as a definitive choice between staying in Europe’s orbit or lurching into Moscow’s.

With nearly all polling station reports counted on Monday, electoral data showed the pro-European Union Party of Action and Solidarity had 50.2 percent of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc has 24.2 percent, according to the Associated Press News agency. The Russia-friendly Alternativa Bloc came third, followed by the populist Our Party.

The pivotal ballot in the nation’s future Sunday pitted the governing pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity against several Russia-friendly opponents.

Leading up to Sunday’s vote, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned of Russian interference, saying Moscow is spending “hundreds of millions” of euros as part of an alleged “hybrid war” to try to seize power, which he described as “the final battle for our country’s future.”

Russia had denied Moldova’s claims that it was waging a disinformation campaign and looking to buy votes and stir unrest.

Geographically, Moldova is landlocked between Ukraine and EU member Romania.

The country has, in recent years, moved westwards in attaining candidate status to the EU in 2022, just after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told AP that PAS’s victory is “a clear win for pro-European forces in Moldova, which will be able to ensure continuity in the next few years in the pursuit of their ultimate goal of EU integration.”

“A PAS majority saves the party from having to form a coalition that would have most likely been unstable and would have slowed down the pace of reforms to join the EU,” he said, adding that “Moldova will continue to be in a difficult geopolitical environment characterized by Russia’s attempts to pull it back into its sphere of influence.”

The election day was marked by a string of incidents, ranging from bomb threats at multiple polling stations abroad to cyberattacks on electoral and government infrastructure, voters photographing their ballots and some being illegally transported to polling stations. Three people were also detained, suspected of plotting to cause unrest after the vote.

On Friday, President Maia Sandu called the vote the country’s “most consequential election”. “Its outcome will decide whether we consolidate our democracy and join the EU, or whether Russia drags us back into a grey zone, making us a regional risk,” Sandu wrote on X.

Recean, in the meantime, had also stressed the threat from Russia: “I call on every Moldovan at home and across Europe: We cannot change what Russia does, but we can change what we do as a people,” he said. “Turn worry into mobilisation and thoughtful action … Help stop their schemes.”

May 19 (UPI) — The Pro-European Union centrist mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, has claimed victory in Romania’s presidential run-off election over far-right nationalist candidate George Simion, who has conceded defeat.

According to official results, Dan, an independent, won 54.22% of the vote compared to Simion, of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, who secured 45.78% of the vote.

“It was an unprecedented mobilization, and that is why the victory belongs to each and every one of you,” Dan said in a statement on X.

“To every Romanian who went out to vote, made their voice heard and thus fought for what they believe in, for the country they want and wish to live in. Starting tomorrow, we begin the reconstruction of Romania — a united, HONEST Romania, based on respect for the law and for all people.”

Simion vowed, also on X, to “continue our fight for freedom and our great values along with other patriots, sovereignists and conservatives all over the world.”

“We may have lost a battle, but we will certainly not lose the war.”

According to Romania’s Permanent Electoral Authority, nearly 55.6% of all registered voters cast ballots in the contest.

Dan’s victory on Sunday comes after Simion was declared the winner of the first round early this month, with nearly 41% of the vote. The run-off election was necessitated as he fell short of the 50% majority needed to win outright.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine congratulated Dan in a statement on X.

“For Ukraine — as a neighbor and friend — it is important to have Romania as a reliable partner,” Zelensky said. “And we are confident we will. By working together, we can strengthen both our countries and our Europe.”

The election comes after a run-off between the pro-Russian nationalist, Calin Georgescu, and centrist Elena Lasconi was canceled in November, just days before ballots were to be cast, over Russia attempting to influence the outcome in Georgescu’s favor.

Online on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania warned of a vile disinformation campaign on Telegram, specifically concerning NATO forces in the country in connection with the election.

“Any attempt to associate the activity of the allied forces on the national territory with the political electoral context in Romania constitutes a form of distortion of the truth,” it said on Facebook, calling the posts “fake news.”

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George Simion rejected the exit poll soon after it was released, claiming he was ahead in the vote.

Centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who has pledged to clamp down on corruption and is staunchly pro-EU and NATO, is on course to win presidential elections in Romania.

Exit polls showed Dan ahead with 54.9 percent. His rival, hard-right nationalist George Simion, was on 45.1 percent.

Simion rejected the exit poll soon after it was released, claiming on Sunday his count estimates have him at 400,000 votes more than Dan.

Dan had campaigned on a pledge to fight rampant corruption and to keep Romania firmly within the European mainstream.

The rerun was held months after the cancellation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades.

Turnout was significantly higher in Sunday’s runoff and is expected to play a decisive role in the outcome.

Official results are expected to come in later on Sunday.

Simion appeared alongside Georgescu at a Bucharest polling station on Sunday and told reporters that he voted against the “humiliations to which our sisters and brothers have been subjected”.

“We voted against abuses and against poverty,” he said. “I voted for our future to be decided only by Romanians, for Romanians and Romania. So help us God!”

More to come…