Russia-friendly candidate ahead amid claims of Kremlin meddling

The man challenging pro-EU Moldovan leader Maia Sandu for the presidency has taken the lead, according to preliminary results, in a key presidential election seen as a choice between Europe and Russia.

Alexandr Stoianoglo, backed by the pro-Russian Party of Socialists, had promised closer ties with Moscow, after Sandu led Moldova in EU membership talks.

The Central Election Commission said that as more than 90% of the votes have been counted, Stoianoglo has 50.5% of the votes and Sandu has 49.5%.

During the vote, the president's national security adviser said there had been “significant interference” from Russia in Moldova's election process that had “high potential to distort the result”.

Russia has previously denied meddling in the election, which came a week after another key Eastern European election in Georgia, whose president said it was a special Russian operation.

Alexandr Stoianoglo, who was fired as Prosecutor General by Sandu, has denied that he supports the Kremlin.

Voting ended in Moldova at 21:00 (19:00 GMT), with voter turnout 54% higher than four years ago, and the highest number of foreign voters at polling stations abroad.

The result could become even stronger as results from polling stations in the EU and the US become clear. The final result will be announced on Monday.

As the polls closed, both Maia Sandu and her rival thanked voters, with Stoianoglu speaking in Russian and Romanian. Although Romanian is the main language of Moldova, Russian is widely spoken due to its former Soviet past.

Casting his vote, he promised to be a “political president” for everyone, telling reporters that he voted for “a Moldova that should develop in harmony with the West and the East”.

Stoianoglu polled well especially in rural and southern areas, while Sandu was ahead in cities and foreign countries, Moldovan media reported.

Sandu called on the people of Moldova to protect their freedom after voting, warning against “thieves” who want to buy their vote and their country.

The National Security Adviser to the President, Stanislav Secrieru, said that Russia had arranged for chartered buses and large planes to bring voters to the polling stations.

Bomb scares briefly disrupted voting in Moldova, at UK polling stations in Liverpool and Northampton and in Frankfurt and Kaiserslautern in Germany, he added.

A Soviet republic for 51 years, Moldova is surrounded by Ukraine and Romania and is one of the poorest countries in Europe. It has a population of 2.5 million and an immigrant population of 1.2 million.

Moldovan authorities have long warned that a fugitive oligarch called Ilan Shor spent $39m (£30m) trying to buy elections in Moscow with handouts to 138,000 Moldovans.

Shor, who is based in Moscow, denies wrongdoing but offered to pay cash to anyone willing to back his “No” bid to the EU.

Analysts and politicians had warned that Stoianoglu's victory could significantly change the political situation in the Danube and Black Sea region, not because he was some kind of “Trojan horse”, but because Russia threw its weight behind him.

There were queues at polling stations in Moscow, Italy and among voters from the largely rebellious Russian-speaking region of Transnistria, who had to cross the Dniester River into Moldova-controlled territory to vote. Transnistria is home to a Russian military base and a large arms depot.

Moldova's election commission said it was aware of reports of organized and illegal transport of voters by air and ground to Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Turkey, and urged the public to report other violations.

Although Sandu easily won the first round of voting, a number of candidates are behind Stoianoglo, although the third-place finisher has refused to support both.

The first round was accompanied by a nail-biting referendum in favor of a constitutional change that included a commitment to join the EU.

In the end the vote was passed by a small margin, and Maia Sandu said there was clear evidence of 300,000 vote buying attempts.