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Moldova election: Igor Dodon will compete with Maia Sandu in second round on November 13
The final winner of the presidential election in Moldova will be picked in a run-off on November 13, when Socialist candidate Igor Dodon will compete with Action and Solidarity Party's candidate Maia Sandu.
After the count of 99.5 percent of the ballots, Dodon was in the lead with 48.5 percent, while Sandu was second with 38.2 percent.
Presidential candidate Igor Dodon of the Party of Moldova's Socialists said Sunday night, before the finalisation of the vote count, that he believes he will win right away, in the first round.
"There are real chances of us winning in the first round. Not all vote reports have been processed yet," said Dodon, who was in the lead with 49.57 percent after the count of 94 percent of the ballots, short of the percentage needed to win in the first round.
For the president to be elected in the first round, a 50-percent mark has to be cleared.
"We are so close. I trust we will win in the first round. There are still enough votes to be counted. Reports form the districts where a massive vote for the Socialists' leader have not been processed yet," said Dodon urging local activists to do their job.
Presidential candidate in Sunday's presidential election in Moldova Maia Sandu, endorsed by the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), the Dignity and Truth Platform (PPDA) and the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM), says she hopes the election will provide a fair and honest president to Moldova.
After voting at the Petru Rares High School of Chisinau, Sandu said that Moldova needs a president who will unite the citizens instead of disuniting them.
"I have voted for a fair and honest president who will represent us and promote the interests of hard-working people, of the people who want to live in Moldova, a president who unites us all instead of keeping us apart, who will not threaten to chase us out from the country, a president who wants this country to prosper and where everybody can enjoy bountifulness," said Sandu.
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The principal of the only high school in Transistria with Romanian tuition has mobilised the Romanian-speaking people of the self-styled republic to turn out to vote for Moldova's pre-Europe president.
Principal Ion Iovcev of the Lucian Blaga High School of din Tiraspol in Sunday accompanied teaching staff, parents and the students entitled to vote to polling station 42 of Varnita, Moldova, to cast their ballots in Moldova's presidential election. They had to cross the border, because Transnistria's authorities refused to open polling places for the Moldovan citizens of the separatist republic.
"I have come with the faculty of Tiraspol, with teachers, parents and students from higher grades to vote for change. This is the time for us to be Europeans. Moldova cannot exist elsewhere but in Europe, alongside Romania," Iovcev told Agerpres.
Iovcev, 65, is the main leader of Romanians in the self-styled republic of Transnistria. He said he has voted in all the elections since 1990.
"It is hard being a Romanian in Tiraspol. The Tiraspol regime labels you enemy number one. In fact, this is a continual fight for existence, for the defence of personal dignity, language and history of our nation. I want to say that people in Tirapsol has started to somehow like me and like us for our spine, for our civic stands," added Iovcev.
Iovcev is seen as an enemy by the Tirsapol authorities, who charged him in the past with sedition against the separatist regime of Transnistria. For the promotion of the Romanian language in Transnistria, Moldova's President has awarded Iovcev a Republic Order decoration.
Hundreds of enfranchised citizens in the self-styled Transnistria Republic on Sunday waited in long lines to cast their ballots in Moldova's presidential election.
They crossed the border in Moldova to vote at polling stations 41 and 42 at Varnita, which were set up especially for such voters.
'There is a huge flow. Compared with the stations at the local elections, this is a huge flow for us. People are responsible. They hope for a better future,' Chair of the 41 polling station Tatiana Druc told Agerpres.
'We have come to vote here because Transnistria's authorities have not agreed to set up polling stations in [the capital city of]Tiraspol. Each has come on his or her own, in their own cars or how they could afford,' said a voter.
People from Transnistria can vote in Moldova's presidential election, provided they have the Moldovan citizenship.