In the early parliamentary elections in Moldova, after processing 100% of the ballots, President Maya Sandu's Action and Solidarity party wins with 52.8% of the votes.

The relevant data are published on the website of the country's CEC.

The second place was taken by the bloc of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) and the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) with 27.17%.

The Shor party is also elected to parliament with a score of 5.74%.

The rest of the election participants (20 parties and two blocs) did not overcome the 5% barrier.

The votes cast for them will be redistributed among the three winners.

Observers from the CIS did not record any violations during the voting that could have an impact on the results of the plebiscite.

According to experts, after the elections, the Sandu party will receive the majority of seats in parliament and will be able to independently form a government.

  • Parliament of Moldova

  • AFP

  • © Sergei GAPON

Traditionally, for Moldova, voting abroad had a significant impact on the election result.

During the years of independence, almost a third of the able-bodied population left Moldova - up to 1 million people.

As statistics show, the share of emigrants who voted in the elections is constantly growing.

In 2005, it amounted to only 1% of the total number of voters, in 2014 - 4%, in 2019 - 5.2%, and in 2021 - 14.1%.

This time, out of 207.2 thousand Moldovans who participated in elections abroad, 86.13% cast their votes for the Action and Solidarity Party.

The bloc of communists and socialists won the support of only 2.51% of compatriots abroad.

Maia Sandu said that after the approval of the election results, she intends to start consultations on the formation of the country's government.

“As president, I want to work with a competent and incorruptible government that cares primarily about the interests of citizens,” she said.

At the same time, Sandu noted that the voting system in the country needs to be improved.

“Some government agencies act for political reasons, ignore the law and endanger free, democratic elections.

If we want to become a strong democracy, this should not happen again, ”she stressed.

Winners and losers

We will remind, early elections to the supreme legislative body of the country were scheduled after Maya Sandu dissolved the parliament of the X convocation on April 28.

Sandu herself took the lead in last December after winning the presidential election.

According to the results of the second round, she received 57.72% of the vote, while the then head of state, socialist Igor Dodon, received 42.28%.

After taking office, Sandu began pushing for early parliamentary elections.

To do this, she blocked the appointment of a new cabinet after the resignation of the government of Ion Chicu, which provoked the dissolution of parliament.

It is worth noting that twice as many parties were represented in the X convocation parliament than will work in the new one.

Most of the mandates were held by the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, Igor Dodon (37 deputies).

Founded by Sandu, Action and Solidarity Party was represented in parliament by 15 MPs.

At the same time, she was part of the ACUM block with the "Dignity and Truth Platform", which held 11 seats in parliament.

In addition, the legislative body included the Democratic Party of Moldova (ten MPs), the Shor Party (nine) and the parliamentary group PRO MOLDOVA (seven MPs).

  • Igor Dodon

  • Reuters

Also, the parliament consisted of 11 independent or non-party deputies.

Despite the fact that the left in these elections received fewer votes than in 2019, the leader of the Party of Socialists, ex-president Igor Dodon called the result of the PSRM and PCRM bloc "good".

“Judging by the preliminary data, the bloc of communists and socialists got a good result in the last elections.

I want to thank the voters for the high turnout despite the tough recrimination campaign, as well as my fellow bloc members from the Party of Communists.

I want to assure that socialists and communists will continue to work together in the future parliament, ”the politician said.

In his speech, he also congratulated Maya Sanda on the victory.

At the same time, Dodon noted that, in his opinion, with the victory of the Action and Justice party, “the period of good relations that had been for the last four years” between Moldova and the Russian Federation ended.

As the PSRM executive secretary Vlad Batryncha said earlier, the party is now collecting all information from polling stations, including about registered violations, including those related to the use of administrative resources, and "prepares certain appeals."

After the collection and publication of these data, the PSRM and PCRM bloc will issue a statement on their further actions.

Heading to Europe

According to analysts, Maia Sandu and her party are focused on closer cooperation with the EU and the United States.

While still a presidential candidate, she said that if she won the elections, she intends to work on deepening Moldova's integration into the European Union.

At the same time, Sandu criticized ex-President Igor Dodon for allegedly establishing bad relations with the West because of his pro-Russian course.

After winning the presidential elections, Sandu made several statements that were ambiguously perceived both in Moldova and in the Russian Federation.

In particular, at the end of November 2020, she criticized the bill proposed by the socialists on the functioning of the languages ​​spoken by the population of the republic.

In it, the Russian was asked to return the status of the language of interethnic communication, which he had lost in 2018.

  • Maya Sandu

  • Reuters

  • © Vladislav Culiomza

According to Sandu, with the help of this law, the Socialist Party allegedly wanted to "divide society and raise people to the barricades."

Later, this law was nevertheless adopted, but it was soon annulled by the Constitutional Court of the republic.

In addition, Sandu has made conflicting statements about Transnistria.

According to her, the format for resolving the conflict in this region should provide for the complete withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from there.

Instead, Sandu suggested sending OSCE representatives to Transnistria.

Recall that in the early 1990s, Transnistria actually separated from Moldova after Chisinau's attempt to take control of it by force.

As a result, a peacekeeping operation was deployed there, in which 402 Russian, 492 Transnistrian, 355 Moldovan military personnel and ten military observers from Ukraine participate.

Sandu's words were then answered by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled that the Russian peacekeepers, like the peacekeepers of Moldova and Ukraine, are in the conflict zone in accordance with the existing decisions of the "5 + 2" group, approved by the OSCE.

“It was the Russian peacekeepers who stopped the hot phase of the Transnistrian conflict and since then ensured the preservation of this conflict, albeit frozen, but not fatal,” he added.

Sandu also spoke out on such a controversial topic as the entry of Moldova into Romania.

Since the country's independence, this issue has been actively discussed in the Moldovan society, in which there are both supporters and opponents of such a step.

While serving as prime minister in 2019, Sandu said that accession to Romania could come about through a national referendum.

In addition, in April 2021, Maia Sandu announced that the country's parliament should amend the Constitution, allowing the state language to be renamed from Moldovan to Romanian.

Sandu herself, in addition to Moldovan, also has Romanian citizenship.

After winning the presidential elections, Sandu spoke about Crimea as well.

She considers this Russian region, which returned to the Russian Federation following the results of the referendum in 2014, to be part of Ukraine.

However, at the end of November 2020, Sandu said she was ready to work towards establishing good relations with Russia.

“I will work to establish good relations with Russia, we have a very serious agenda for interaction with this country,” the politician said.

Points of contact

According to analysts, after the elections, Maia Sandu and her party will have "all the main levers of government in the country."

“The majority in parliament gives her the opportunity to appoint her speaker, her prime minister and her government.

Whether it will be a one-party government or whether they will invite representatives of other parties, we will find out in the coming days.

But in terms of strategy, it would be smarter to create a wider government without relying on only one party.

But what the president will do, we do not yet know, "Vitaly Andrievsky, director of the Institute for Effective Politics of Moldova, said in an interview with RT.

  • Moldovan voters

  • AFP

  • © Sergei GAPON

At the same time, the expert called the result of the socialists a failure, the reason for which lies in the incorrectly conducted election campaign.

Andrievsky did not rule out that in the future other parties may appear in the country, which will occupy the niche of the opposition.

In turn, the head of the Center for Post-Soviet Studies at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leonid Vardomsky, believes that the victory of Sandu and her party will not bring anything fundamentally new to Moldova's foreign policy.

“Moldova is already associated with the EU.

This course has not been canceled, it will be continued.

Perhaps they will begin to more carefully comply with EU regulations, they will work to deepen economic ties, "the analyst said in an interview with RT.

Vitaly Andrievsky believes that Sandu's pro-European position does not mean that she will take the same anti-Russian position as neighboring Ukraine.

“I think that the new authorities will find points of contact with Russia, which will allow them to start solving the problems that have accumulated in bilateral relations.

If a relationship of trust is established, then difficult problems will be solved much easier, ”the analyst said.

Vladimir Olenchenko, an employee of the Center for European Studies at the IMEMO RAS, believes that maintaining a balance in foreign policy is necessary for Chisinau to maintain civil peace in the country, since in Moldovan society quite a few people advocate closer contacts with the Russian Federation.

“The main thing is that the new authorities, following the example of Ukraine, Georgia and the Baltic states, do not suppress dissent.

This will help maintain a balance of coexistence of different political forces in Moldova.

For this, Chisinau also needs to pursue a balanced policy in the international arena so as not to stir up disagreements.

Indeed, in Moldova there are many supporters of deepening cooperation with the Russian Federation, "Olenchenko said in an interview with RT.

At the same time, he believes that Sandu is unlikely to be able to achieve much progress on the issue of Moldova's accession to the EU.

“Practical politics are often different from campaign promises. This is not the first time Moldova will announce its European orientation. But besides their desires, there are other factors as well. For example, the possibilities of the EU itself, which is clearly going through hard times now. Will they want to speed up the process of accepting such a problematic country as Moldova? This is a big question, ”the analyst concluded.