Socialists Win First Mayoral Round in Moldovan Capital

Pro-Russian forces scored an important victory on Sunday when they won the first round of voting for a new mayor in Chisinau - long seen as a bastion of pro-Western politics.

The Socialist candidate, Ion Ceban, won 40.30 per cent of the vote, well ahead of Andrei Nastase, candidate of the pro-EU ACUM bloc, who took 31.01 per cent.

Both rivals will now go head-to-head in the second round of the mayoral election on November 3.

While Chisinau has long been a fortress of pro-European feeling in the country, the pro-Russian Socialists have been strengthening their positions lately on the Moldovan political scene, which Sunday's vote confirms.

During their campaigns in the first round, Ceban and Nastase agreed not to use geopolitical rhetoric about the country's East-West future and orientation - but that situation may change in the second round.

Third place in the polls in Chisinau went to the Liberal Party candidate, former mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, who took 10.14 per cent of the vote. The other candidates all won less than 5 per cent.

Turnout was low at 36.05 per cent, with a total of 229,637 votes cast, the Central Electoral Commission, CEC, announced on Monday.

In local elections nationwide, the turnout was higher at 41.68 per cent, with 1,173,834 voters taking part. The threshold for the elections to be valid is 25 per cent.

Nastase said he had no complaints about the conduct of the elections. After polling stations closed on Sunday night, he said: "These elections, perhaps the most important in recent years, have been conducted in much better conditions than the ones so far, without major incidents".

He added that it was the first time that an election have been held without any interference from the former...

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