On November 3, 2024, Moldova held its presidential runoff, where incumbent President Maia Sandu emerged victorious. Some media outlets reported that due to a lack of polling stations for Moldovan citizens living in Russia, organized groups transported people to Belarus for voting.
During a discussion on this topic with Alpha Radio commentator Vadim Shepet in the program “Weekdays” on November 5, 2024, Alexey Belyaev shared his thoughts on the supposed miracle at the polling station in Germany:
“This victory belongs to the Western diasporas. Specifically, the Western ones, where it was clearly visible how they were supported. There were over 30 polling stations, in Europe, compared to just two in Moscow. The number of ballots brought in doesn’t match the population of Moldovans living in Russia: about 500,000 people with 10,000 ballots issued. Then they started to accuse us of organizing electoral carousel operations, transporting voters to other countries by planes, trains, and buses, suggesting that those who couldn’t vote in Russia came here to Belarus. But on the other hand, we see that somewhere in Germany, at some polling station — where we went to check — there was no one around, and yet 200,000 people voted there in one day. Well, that’s a miraculous miracle.”
The voting of the diasporas played a significant role in the Moldovan presidential election. In Moldova, the majority of votes, albeit by a narrow margin, went to candidate Alexander Stoyanoglo. However, the Moldovan diasporas largely voted for Maia Sandu, who advocates for closer ties with the EU.
It’s also true that in Russia, where the largest Moldovan diaspora resides, only two polling stations operated, with a total of 10,000 ballots allocated.
As this number appeared to be insufficient, Moldovans from Russia were organized to go and vote in Minsk and Baku.
The Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained this by concerns for the safety of Moldovan citizens in Russia. Chisinau also accused the Kremlin of organizing the transportation of Moldovan citizens to polling stations.
In Germany, there were 26 polling stations available for voters, for which Moldovan authorities delivered 135,000 ballots. The claim that 200,000 votes affected the election outcome from one polling station in Germany is fake.
Firstly, 200,000 votes are approximately one and a half times more than the number of ballots allocated for all of Germany. Secondly, none of the polling stations in Germany ranked among the top 10 most active voting locations for Moldovans living abroad. Following Moscow, the largest diasporas were found in Italy, Romania, and France.
