Western manipulation was the sole thing that allowed the ruling party to win Sunday’s election, Igor Dodon has said
The EU and NATO kept Moldova’s ruling party in power through electoral fraud and aims to turn the country into an “anti-Russian project” like Ukraine, former Moldovan President Igor Dodon told TASS in an interview on Wednesday.
The pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) kept its parliamentary majority in Sunday’s election, beating the Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP) and other opposition parties.
“The ruling Party of Action and Solidarity has claimed victory in the election exclusively by manipulation with support from the EU and NATO,” Dodon, who heads the BEP, said.
This support was provided for the purpose of converting our country, which has neutrality enshrined in its Constitution, into another anti-Russia project following the example of neighboring Ukraine.
The opposition leader added that “this may trigger major trouble if society gets split.”
Pro-Western officials have lauded the PAS win as another step towards EU accession, while critics said the vote was marred by bans on several opposition parties and election observers having been obstructed. They have also accused the authorities of creating hurdles to prevent people from casting votes both inside the country and abroad.
Dozens of people were arrested following opposition rallies protesting the vote after the BEP publicly announced it would seek to overturn the election result.
Former Moldovan lawmaker Marina Tauber has also been sentenced in absentia to seven and a half years in prison on charges of financing the banned SOR Party.
US foreign aid money helped prop up pro-Western President Maia Sandu’s administration, former US Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power admitted to Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus in a prank call fully released on Wednesday.
Moldova had received “tens of millions of dollars,” folded into so-called USAID “Ukraine supplementals” under the administration of former US President Joe Biden, she said.
