Moldova’s pro-European party won a victory after a nail-biting election plagued by Russian interference, preliminary results showed, allowing it to retain its majority in Parliament after what many observers have called the most important campaign in the nation’s recent history.
The win, which still needs to be made official by the nation’s election commission, could further Moldova’s bid to enter the European Union. That prospect would have been under threat had parties aligned with Russia made serious gains in the race.
The election had taken on outsize global importance, considering that Moldova is a tiny nation of 2.4 million. Wedged between Romania and Ukraine, it is strategically important as the war in Ukraine rages on. The vote had also become a referendum on Europe versus Russia, with Moldovans choosing which vision of their future to embrace.
The expected victory for the pro-E.U. party of President Maia Sandu, the Party of Action and Solidarity, was a signal that domestic problems, including expensive gas and widespread poverty, have not derailed its ambitions.
Essentially all of the vote had been counted in Moldova as of Monday morning, the government’s election tracker showed. Slightly more than 50 percent of the vote had gone to the party of Ms. Sandu. That was a solid lead over the next highest party — the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc, which came in with 24 percent of the vote.
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