Stanislav Secrieru tweeted that the meddling had a “high potential to distort the outcome” and that electoral authorities were on “high alert.”
Sunday saw Moldovans cast their vote in a runoff between Maia Sandu, who is running for a second term, and former prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo, who is backed by the pro-Russia Socialist Party.
In the first round on October 20, Stoianoglo secured 26% of the vote against Sanu’s 42%, below the 50% needed for an outright win. The runoff comes hot on the heels of a parliamentary election in Georgia contested by the president over allegations of rigging.
“We’re seeing massive interference by Russia in our electoral process as Moldovans vote in the presidential runoff today—an effort with high potential to distort the outcome,” Stanislav Secrieru, Sandu's national security adviser, wrote on the X platform above a thread of specific meddling accusations he said would be updated in real time.
A chief allegation was large-scale voter transportation, which is forbidden by Moldova’s electoral rules, particularly from the separatist Moscow-backed region of Transnistria. In support of his allegations, Secrieru cited election monitoring reports from local pro-democracy NGO Promo-LEX, an organization he described as “reputable.”
Among the supporting tweets in the thread, Secrieru included video footage of a charter flight, originally posted by Russian state media company Sputnik, which he said showed hundreds of Moldovan passport-carrying passengers in “clear evidence of large-scale, organized voter transportation.”
“Also seeing organized transport from Russia, with buses and large charter flights bringing voters to polling stations in Baku, Istanbul and Minsk as reported by Russia’s own propaganda channels,” the official tweeted.
