Moldova’s President Maia Sandu and her ruling PAS party have been in trouble in the polls heading into the Sunday, Sept. 28 parliamentary election—largely due to four years of broken promises, that cozying up to the EU would improve Moldova’s economy and peoples’ lives. So, signs of desperation have mounted.
On Sept. 22, Moldovan authorities arrested 74 people on suspicion of plotting unrest, alleging a network of activists was working to amplify Russian influence. On Sept. 25, Irina Vlah of the opposition Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP) urged citizens to participate in Sunday’s vote on Sept. 28 and claimed that fraud is the only way the governing Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) can secure victory. “They will try to appropriate all the unused ballots. They are preparing ballot-stuffing abroad under the cover of the ‘diaspora.’” This type of ballot-stuffing, with 300,000 late counted votes from Moldovans living abroad, was credited with Sandu winning the presidency last fall. (Given that Moldova’s total population doesn’t quite reach 3 million, votes from 300,000 adult Moldovans registered to vote and living overseas is of no little significance.)
One day later, Vlah’s BEP was banned from the Sept. 28 parliamentary elections. And last night, on Sept. 26, another opposition party, “Greater Moldova,” was similarly banned. Greater Moldova leader Victoria Furtuna said that, 90 minutes before the meeting of the Election Commission, she was first given a large amount of paperwork with the allegations and findings. She accused the Commission of doing the will of Sandu’s ruling government and that she would appeal the ban.
