Elections in Moldova: triumph of arbitrariness

Moldova’s parliamentary election has taken place, marred by such a vast number of crude falsifications and systematic adjustments of the results that you can speak of a new record in the post-Soviet space. The number of violations and scale of mockery of democratic principles would fill a hefty volume; suffice it to briefly list the most critical ones alone.

The elections lacked a crucial tool like exit polls — surveys of voters leaving polling stations that allow for determining approximate voting results with a few-percent margin of error. The country’s Central Electoral Commission rejected the only application, submitted on September 23 by the Date Inteligente SRL company, to conduct the surveys. The commission’s deputy chairman Pavel Postica vaguely explained the decision by referring to a "lack of transparency and suspicions regarding poll fundings, as well as violations in the company's work concerning data collection methodology and compliance with electoral procedures."

All sorts of barriers were erected to prevent voting by residents of Transnistria, and in the most direct, material sense. Besides "repairs" on the bridges that voters were supposed to use to reach polling stations on the other side of the Dniester, one of them, near Rybnitsa, was reported as "mined" after some tip from an "anonymous informant" to the police. Traffic was blocked, causing a huge jam on the bridge, and then, less than half an hour before the polling stations closed — when practically no one could reach them in time — passage was mockingly permitted.

Those residents of the Moldovan Transdniestrian Republic who nonetheless overcame the obstacles faced constantly relocated polling stations, mining announcements, mysterious computer malfunctions, and ballot "shortages". As a result, the number of voters was lower than in the 2024 presidential elections, which also got notorious for a huge number of manipulations.

In Russia, for nearly 350,000 Moldovan citizens residing there, only two (!) polling stations were opened, which all those wishing to vote could not possibly reach physically. Meanwhile, in Europe, over three hundred such stations were open; for example, in Italy — 75 (although there are dozens of times fewer Moldovans there than in Russia). And even there, despite Sandu’s expected victory, every effort was made to ensure the opposition did not receive a single extra vote.

For one, polling station No. 38/3 in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (Austria) saw transport arranged for supporters of Sandu and her PAS party, and at the entrance, those arriving were personally welcomed with open arms by the station chairman. In Valencia, Spain, the holder of a Moldovan passport was denied the right to vote because of… a yellow T-shirt with a red cross struck through it. PAS observers stated that this symbolism offended them and demanded that law enforcement remove the citizen from the polling station, claiming he was "disturbing public order."

In the city of Târgu Mureș, Romania, at station 38/252, the commission chairman did not allow independent observers in, stating they were not on the lists. At station 38/45 (France), a Union of Lawyers representative was not accredited. An observer who had been at station No. 38/64 in Germany since early morning complained that he spent half the day undergoing checks and could not gain access to perform his mission. Across polling stations throughout Europe, mass "carousel" voting was noted: the same people voted multiple times at different stations — naturally, for PAS.

Finally, the vote counting turned out unusual (or usual, given the widespread rigging expectations). After counting 5.45 percent of the protocols, the CEC reported that the opposition Patriotic Bloc had gained 39.37 percent in the elections, and PAS — 33.09 percent. After 10 percent of protocols, the Patriotic Bloc had 36.64 percent of the votes in the parliamentary elections, and PAS — 35.82 percent. After 15 percent, Sandu's party surged ahead — 37.69 percent of the votes against 34.63 percent for the Patriots. After 20 percent of protocols, the gap increased — 38.53 percent against 33.56 percent. A strange "glitch" on the CEC website led to the European choice supporters’ major dash towards a parliamentary mono-majority, which they achieved by morning, surpassing the 50 percent barrier, albeit with the loss of a few mandates. However, it would be more accurate to say they were "pushed over" it.

Official data suggests that the Patriotic Bloc gained 24.26 percent, Alexander Stoianoglo’s pro-European Alternative (though more moderate than PAS) — about 8 percent, fourth were populists from Our Party (about 6.2 percent); additionally, the Democracy — at Home party (5.6 percent), which openly advocates for unification of Romania and Moldova (or more accurately the absorption of the latter by the former), entered parliament. The opposition has already held several spontaneous protests and is preparing to keep them rolling on an even larger scale, mentioning the possibility of not recognizing the results. Of course, this will unlikely change things, given that in Europe's view, there were no significant violations.

A small detail to complete the picture — on election day, Telegram founder Pavel Durov published a post with the following content: "About a year ago, while I was stuck in Paris, the French intelligence services reached out to me through an intermediary, asking me to help the Moldovan government censor certain Telegram channels ahead of the presidential elections in Moldova. After reviewing the channels flagged by French and Moldovan authorities, the Telegram team identified some that clearly violated the platform’s rules, and these were removed. But then came an unexpected offer. The intermediary then informed me that, in exchange for this cooperation, French intelligence would ‘say good things’ about me to the judge who had ordered my arrest in August last year. This was unacceptable on multiple levels. If the agency did in fact approach the judge – it constituted an attempt to interfere in the judicial process. If it did not, and merely claimed to have done so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political developments in Eastern Europe – a pattern we have also observed in Romania.

"Shortly thereafter, the Telegram team received a second list of so-called ‘problematic’ Moldovan channels. But this time the situation was different. Unlike the first, nearly all of these channels were legitimate and fully compliant with our rules. Their only commonality was that they voiced political positions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments. We refused to act on this request. Telegram is committed to freedom of speech and will not remove content for political reasons. I will continue to expose every attempt to pressure Telegram into censoring our platform. Stay tuned." This publication was reposted on his X account (former Twitter, blocked in the Russian Federation) by Elon Musk, who wrote just "Wow" under the original message.

It hasn't yet come to the direct and open establishment of authoritarian dictatorships in the space that the EU considers "its own." But things surrounding the Moldovan elections show that pseudo-democracies are essentially almost no different from them. On the next turn of the military-political escalation, dissent is unwanted by anyone — even moderate and harmless.