So, below is what I wrote as a reply to this post of mine (where I urged ppl to vote in the Moldovan parliamentary elections) bc I wanted to give a follow up about the situation, but I think it's important enough (especially the 2nd half of it) to be a stand-alone.
The presence at the vote was pretty low, we were expecting more mobilisation since the stakes were so high: 52.2%, but still, it's higher than the usual 47-49%.
PAS (the only one of the pro-European, pro-democratic parties which had any chance to cross the minimum percent of votes and enter Parliament) got 50.20% and can make a majority in Parliament alone, it has 55 seats out of 101 (the no. is higher than the percent because of the redistribution).
(PAS is the first one in the img below; the other 4 are all pro-Russians. These are all 5 which entered Parliament (the no. on the left is the order in which they appeared on the voting sheet).
The threshold is 5% of votes for parties, 7% for party alliances (called "bloc", "blocul" = bloc + definite article, there's 2 of them which entered) and 2% for independent candidates - none of them got in.)
(from the official site, alegeri.md)
So despite all the lies and manipulations constantly overflowing on social media, more than half of the population sensed the deception and rejected pro-Russian groups. We can officially say
fuck you Putin, die of spite!
(black flowers separator from here)
4 years ago, PAS had taken 63 seats. It is a decrease to take 55, but it is exceptional given 1- the fact that a ruling party has its popular support naturally eroded through the expected general dissatisfaction of the population, especially in a country with many problems with justice, economy, etc., and especially since they governed through a big part of the pandemic, with all the problems it brought, and 2- the intense bombardment of hybrid warfare through social media networks.
An info I heard from Nicolae Chicu (journalist): PAS had even more votes than in 2021, by over a thousand. The reason for having fewer mandates than then is that now 2 small parties entered, with 6 mandates each.
(Only parties/ppl above a certain percent get into Parliament, so if there are many with 3%, 4% etc., which don't, the total percent of the parties which got in may be low, let's say 70%. The seats belonging to the rest of 30% is split between them proportionally to the percent they got, so a party w 40% of votes won't get 40 seats out of 101, but 45, or 50, depending also on the no. of parties which got in, to which the 30% is split.
Last time there were only 3 parties in Parliament and PAS had the highest percent of votes, so in the redistribution more seats were given to it.)
I think there was so much evidence of hybrid warfare directed against PAS and EU and the West in general in the public attention that many people got pissed off and voted for PAS even if they didn't like how it had governed the country. Reverse psychology.
There were attempts to disrupt the voting process (bomb threats, attempted assault against voters) but they overall failed.
And, of course, Moscow officials say that the elections were rigged, that Moldovans in Russia were unable to vote, that France gave money to buy votes for PAS, etc.
The Electoral Alliance of Communists, Socialists, etc. (those with a red star in the img above, who got 24%, 26 seats, pro-Russians) did not admit their defeat, at least that was still the case yesterday afternoon, they say there was fraud. I don't know if they accepted reality by now, but between 24% and 45-50% (in order to mean victory) there's a lot even for a fraud to change, those guys are ridiculous. There was fraud, but in their favour, not against them.
In the Senate in Bucharest, parliamentarians gave a standing ovation yesterday at noon when the election results were announced.
We had been really anxious about these elections.
The Romanian system is semi-presidential, so the president has a relatively big power, they're the one who proposes the Prime-Minister and has a role in forming the Government, therefore there can be a minority Government, one based on a party/party alliance which doesn't have majority in the Parliament.
In Moldova that's impossible. Their system is parliamentary, most of the power is w the Parliament and whoever has majority makes the Government and dictates the country's direction. If no party has majority, an alliance of 2 or more will be made.
It was essential for PAS to take majority, since an alliance w any of the pro-Russian parties was out of the question, while the latter were willing to make such an alliance among themselves. And, apart from PAS, it was clear that only pro-Russians will cross the threshold, so a PAS w 48 seats would mean a pro-Russian alliance w 53 (of 101), so a pro-Russian Government.
A pro-Russian Moldova would mean a lot of trouble, including that Putin could open a 2nd front against Ukraine, pinning it from both East and West.
Many transports of drone and other weapon parts have been detected and rejected in Moldovan airports for months if not years now and there were attempts to send Russian soldiers in the hundreds, claiming to be tourists (at entrance, but who then wouldn't leave) - the ones found were expelled.
So there were signs that was Putin's plan. A pro-Russian Government would have had the power to stop the searches and the expulsion of such and to find a pretext to declare war to Ukraine.
That is why we're so relieved now. But not entirely, since Putin must have a plan B, C, maybe D too. B will probably be attempts at destabilising Moldova.
There is proof that Putin has poured a shit-ton of money in manipulating voters through fake accounts on Tiktok, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram etc., and through paying them directly. For months, here has been a torrent of fake news, like:
-Russia isn't at war w Ukraine, but w NATO, they're trying to save Ukraine from NATO's expansion; if Moldova joins the EU (PAS' main goal) it will automatically join NATO and enter war w Russia
-EU is full of gays, lesbians and trans ppl and, once Md joins, they will bring "the LGBT propaganda" into schools and forcefully trans the kids
-once Md joins the EU, many people's lands/apartments will be confiscated bc their papers are in the name of a state which doesn't exist anymore (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic)
-France will forcefully recruit Moldavians into the Foreign Legion
-etc. etc., these are the more outrageous ones, but there are some that could make sense if you're not well informed. Even these above start being believable to ppl w less critical thinking if they see hundreds or even thousands of accounts - so what seems to be real ppl - on the net repeating them day in, day out. Also, they recruited priests, individuals who have ppl's trust, to spread the same lies.
A similar situation, to a lesser degree, is happening to the rest of Europe, possibly North America too. This was the outcome of a big battle, but the war is not over.
Here are 2 youtube docus made by journalists who infiltrated the fake news & electoral fraud networks: 1st, 2nd, unfortunately the English subtitles are not very visible bc they overlap with the inbuilt Romanian ones, when the ppl speak Russian. There is a 3rd, but it doesn't have English subtitles.
