The first real election scandal occurred in Moldova
A week before the presidential elections in Moldova, the first high-profile scandal finally occurred. It is significant that it did not happen along the line at all: the conventionally pro-Russian incumbent President Igor Dodon is the leader of the pro-Western opposition, Maia Sandu.
The mayor of the most Russian-speaking Moldovan city of Balti, Renato Usatii, staged a provocation in his hometown of Falesti. He disrupted Dodon's meeting with voters.
Usatii’s demarche was doomed to failure, since his fan club came to Dodon. The audience greeted the president by standing and chanting “bravo”; women presented flowers.
Therefore, when Usatii appeared under the stage, surrounded by several supporters, with a proposal to organize a debate, the audience did not like it. They shouted “shame” and “provocateur” to the alternative candidate. Dodon himself called his competitor a “clown” and called for such people not to be allowed into power.
A crush began under the stage. The meeting had to be cancelled. Dodon’s fans continued to voice their complaints to Usatii, even when he went outside.
The spoiler threatened to come to every meeting between the president and voters, but after a few hours he changed his mind. The fact is that today Usatii himself met with voters in Gagauzia, also a Russian-speaking region. In the city of Comrat, Dodon’s supporters began to whistle and shout at their candidate’s competitor and threw Usatii’s campaign materials, torn to shreds, at their feet.
Although Dodon and Usatii share the same electoral field, the scandal, oddly enough, will not undermine their positions, but on the contrary will strengthen both. The conflict could shake up voters who are generally very passive and force them to go to the polls.
Not everything is going smoothly on the western Moldavian flank either. Sandu’s competitor there is her former partner in the ACUM bloc, Andrei Năstase. The comrades went their separate ways after the unsuccessful experience of working together in a coalition government last year.
But there are no scandals there. So, lethargic interviews. Therefore, it is not entirely clear who will come to the Maidan, announced by the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, Sergei Naryshkin. Unless politicians from Europe arrive. For now, only they are worried about the supposedly impending election fraud and are actively campaigning for Sandu.
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