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Sandu retains leadership in Moldova after 99% of protocols counted
The gap between Maia Sandu and Alexandru Stoianoglo was 10%. Some protocols remained at polling stations abroad. Both candidates received more than 54% of the votes.
Incumbent Moldovan President Maia Sandu maintains her lead in the second presidential election, with CEC data showing that after processing 99.14% of the protocols:
Sandu received the support of 55.09% of voters, while the candidate of the Socialist Party (PSRM) and former Prosecutor General Alexandru Stoianoglo received the support of 44.91%. The first results showed the advantage of Sandu's rival, but later the votes of Moldovans living abroad showed Sandu in the lead.
If we do not take into account the data on foreign objects, Stoianoglo recorded 51.19%, and Sandu - 48.81%. Abroad, 82% of voters voted for the current president, and 17% for his opponent (91% of the protocol was covered there).
304,713 Moldovan citizens exercised their right to vote abroad, and almost 1.7 million people took part in the elections, with voter turnout being 54.30%.
Maia Sandu (52) is the President of Moldova since 2020; in 2016, she founded the Solidarity Action Party (Partidul Acşiune şi Solidaritate - PAS), which won the early parliamentary elections in 2021 and became the ruling party. The party has 62 seats in the republic's 101-seat unicameral parliament. Sandu is running for a second term in PAS. Under her, the country applied for EU membership and received candidate status. Alexandru Stoianoglo (57) is originally from Gagauzia, and twice ran for the post of Bashkan (head) of the autonomous region. From 2019 to 2023, by decree of President Igor Dodon (PSRM), he was appointed Prosecutor General of Moldova, and was dismissed in 2021. Three criminal cases have been opened against him. In one of them, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded him compensation, in another, a Moldovan court acquitted him, and a third is pending. Sandu fired Prosecutor General Stoianoglo in 2023. And although the Constitutional Court declared the law on which it was based unconstitutional, the decision was not overturned.
Commenting on the preliminary results, Sandu said that Moldova had won the elections and expressed gratitude to everyone who took part in the electoral process. The President is confident that everyone's voices have been heard, regardless of who they support, and promised to carry out the necessary reforms, including judicial reform.
Stoianoglo also thanked voters for proving that “Moldova is not a dot on the map, and that we are not passive observers, but responsible citizens who know our future.”