Moldova's ruling party on Monday hailed its key election victory that keeps the ex-Soviet country on a pro-EU path despite what the government and its allies said was a massive attempt by Russia to sway the vote.
The small EU candidate country neighbouring Ukraine and with a pro-Russia breakaway region has long been divided over whether to move closer to Brussels or maintain Soviet-era relations with Moscow.
Sunday's parliamentary elections -- won by the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) -- were seen as crucial in determining whether the nation of 2.4 million would keep up its push towards EU integration, launched after Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"Yesterday's vote is a strong mandate for the process of Moldova's accession to the EU," President Maia Sandu of PAS told reporters on Monday.
The election was marred by widespread allegations of Russian interference -- vote-buying, attempts to stir unrest and disinformation on what the EU called an unprecedented scale.
"Russia threw everything dirty it had into the fight.... It's not only PAS that won the elections, the people won," PAS leader Igor Grosu told a press conference.
Moscow denied the allegations.
"The country's authorities cynically accused Russia, not the European Union, of interfering in Moldova's political processes, fuelling insinuations about a non-existent 'Russian threat'," a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry said in a statement Monday.
Final results showed that the PAS got 50.20 percent of the vote, compared with 24.18 percent for the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc.
The ruling party's vote share dipped from the last parliamentary elections four years ago and it is projected to have 55 seats in the 101-member parliament, down from 63.
- 'Right path' -
"It's very nice to wake up in a Moldova which chose the right path: peace, development and stability," Nadir Grinco, 25, who works in organisational communication, told AFP in Chisinau.
But Liuba Peribicovski, a 75-year-old pensioner, said the result was "negative" for her, and called on the EU to "prove this meddling" that it accuses Russia of.
About 200 people gathered briefly outside parliament on Monday, chanting "freedom" and "Moldova", following a call to protest by one of the leaders of the pro-Russian opposition Patriotic Bloc, Igor Dodon.
Dodon, a former president, has accused the PAS of stealing the vote and said complaints have been filed to the election commission.
The head of the election observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Paula Cardoso, said the vote "demonstrated a high level of commitment to democracy amid unprecedented hybrid threats coming from Russia".
- Support slipping -
Turnout during Sunday's election stood at 52.21 percent, similar to the last vote four years ago.
Moldova is one of Europe's poorest countries and voters have expressed frustration over economic hardship, as well as scepticism over the drive to join the EU.
The country also has a pro-Russia breakaway region, Transnistria, whose local authorities claimed there were attempts to limit voting.
European leaders -- including neighbouring Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky -- hailed the election result as a victory for the continent.
"Russia failed to destabilise Moldova even after spending huge, huge resources to undermine it and to corrupt whoever they could," Zelensky said.
France, Germany and Poland said in a joint statement: "Moldovan voters have shown once again that they will not allow their future in peace and freedom to be taken away from them... despite unprecedented interference by Russia."
Moldova's government has accused the Kremlin of spending hundreds of millions to interfere in the campaign.
In the lead-up to the vote, prosecutors carried out hundreds of searches related to what the government said was "electoral corruption" and "destabilisation attempts", with dozens arrested.
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