Sandu won 41% of the vote, which means a second round of the election, in which she will have to compete with the pro-Russian former Prosecutor General Alexander Stojanoglu, for whom 27% of the voters voted in the first round, according to the results after about 96% of the votes were counted.
In the referendum, in which the voters had to answer the question whether joining the European Union (EU) should be fixed in the constitution as a strategic goal of the country, 50.03% voted “for” and 49.97% voted “against”, according to the results after 98% of the votes were counted.
Addressing his supporters, Sandu accused criminal groups of trying to influence the outcome of the election and referendum on Monday night.
“Criminal groups working together with foreign forces hostile to our national interests have attacked our country with tens of millions of euros, lies and propaganda, using the most shameful means to keep our citizens and our country in ignorance and instability,” the president said.
“We have clear evidence that the goal of these criminal groups was to buy 300,000 votes, a fraud of an unprecedented scale,” Sandu added. “Their goal was to undermine the democratic process,” the president said.