Moldova’s ruling pro-European party has won a parliamentary election, retaining its parliamentary majority.
Sunday’s pivotal election was seen as a test of the President’s push to keep the country on track for EU membership rather than drifting back towards Moscow.
With more than 99.5% of the ballots counted, the pro-western Action and Solidarity party (PAS) garnered 50.03% of the vote to elect members of the 101-seat parliament.
That compared to 24.26% for a Moscow-leaning alliance of Soviet-nostalgic parties headed by former President Igor Dodon, according to results published on the election commission’s website.
The PAS party outperformed pre-election surveys, which had suggested it would remain the largest party but risk falling short of a majority – potentially limiting her push to deliver on a pledge of EU membership within a decade.
The result marks a major victory for Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, who has staked her presidency on a pro-European course and accused Russia of deploying unprecedented underhand tactics to sway voters in the impoverished nation squeezed between Ukraine and Romania.
Polling stations closed locally at 9pm and counting continued late into the night before full results were announced.
The election day was a turbulent one marked by officials reporting attempts to disrupt the vote, including cyber-attacks on election systems and fake bomb threats at polling sites abroad.
Shortly before polls closed, police detained three people suspected of being from the security services in Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria, who were allegedly planning to cause “mass destabilizations and disorder” after the election.
The police said, “They are alleged leaders responsible for coordinating, monitoring and logistically supplying the groups,” adding that they found pyrotechnics and flammable materials the suspects intended on using to cause panic and chaos
However, there were many more allegations of irregularities as Moldovans cast their ballots. Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that bomb threats had targeted polling stations set up in several cities abroad, which stopped people from voting for up to two hours in some cases.
Moldova’s Information Technology and Cyber Security Service also disclosed that cyberattacks had targeted electoral infrastructure and government cloud services, but were swiftly dealt with.
Sandu said in a Facebook address as the vote was underway that the authorities also had multiple reports of voters being illegally transported to polling stations abroad, “obviously in exchange for money,” and cases of blank ballots being removed from polling stations so they could later “be reintroduced already stamped.”
Promo-Lex, a nongovernmental organization monitoring the vote, reported scores of incidents ranging from unauthorized persons at polling stations to scores of people photographing or filming their ballots.
Igor Grosu, the leader of Party of Action and Solidarity, said after polls closed that “Russia’s attempts to hijack the electoral process have been huge” and that state institutions made efforts to ensure the security and integrity of the voting.
After casting her ballot on Sunday, Sandu reiterated long-held claims that Russia “massively interfered” in the election, saying she voted “to keep the peace” and insisted her country’s future lies within the EU.
There have been long-alleged Russian interference fears but Russia has repeatedly denied meddling in Moldova and dismissed the allegations last week as “anti-Russian” and “unsubstantiated.”
Former Moldova President Calls For Protest
Meanwhile, Igor Dodon, a former President and a member of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc, called for a protest in front of the Parliament building today, Monday, September 29, 2025.
Dodon, who heads the Patriotic bloc opposing Sandu’s pro-European course, said that his allies had documented electoral violations and were gathering evidence. He called on all opposition parties to join the peaceful protest outside parliament.
He later alleged after polls closed that the pro-Western ruling party “is now in panic and is considering various pretexts, excuses and scenarios that go beyond the law and democratic norms.”
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