A pro-reform party seeking closer ties for Moldova with the European Union has won a clear majority in the parliamentary election, electoral commission results show Monday. Sunday’s election was called by President Maia Sandu, who sought to gain a parliament made up of pro-EU reformists in the former Soviet republic. The Party of Action and Solidarity, or PAS, took almost 53 per cent of all votes, compared to the electoral bloc of Communists and Socialists, which took 27 per cent. Only one other party passed the threshold to gain seats in Moldova’s 101-seat legislature.
Voter turnout in the nation of 3.5 million people Europe’s poorest country, landlocked between Ukraine and Romania was just over 48 per cent. Sandu, a former World Bank official who used to lead the PAS, has promised to clean up corruption, fight poverty and strengthen relations with the EU. After ballots closed Sunday the president said she hopes the election would be the end of a hard era for Moldova. I hope today will be the end of the thieves’ reign over Moldova … People must soon feel the benefits of a clean parliament and a government that actually concerns population problems, she said. In 2014, Moldova signed a deal with the EU on forging closer ties, but high levels of corruption and lack of reform have hindered development in the country, which ranked 115th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perception Index.