MOSCOW, October 21. /TASS/. The Kremlin has noted an abnormal rise in votes for Moldova’s incumbent President Maia Sandu and Eurointegration following the election in that country.

"The figures that we see today, the ones we are monitoring, the dynamics of their changes, certainly raise many issues," the Kremlin official told reporters, replying to a question by TASS.

"What we are seeing are, certainly, such mechanical, hard to explain growth rates in votes for Sandu and for those referendum participants favoring the course toward the European Union," Peskov noted. According to him, "any observer, more or less familiar with the essence of political processes, can register these abnormalities with the rise in these votes."

That said, he stressed that even in the context of this unfree election campaign, it is obvious that many people do not support the incumbent president. "This is noteworthy," the Kremlin spokesman emphasized.

Peskov explained what the unfree election campaign in Moldova was all about.

"Opposition forces were deprived of a chance to engage in any kind of campaigning, to engage in the electoral process. They were persecuted. They were jailed. They were interrogated. They were not allowed into the country. Their media were muzzled. And their Internet resources were blocked," Peskov said.

The Kremlin official suggested waiting for final election results.

Preliminary data

The presidential election was held in Moldova on October 20. Sandu has 41.84% of the vote, while Moldova’s former Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, previously sacked by Sandu, holds 26.35%, according to preliminary results released by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) after processing 100% of the protocols. The runoff election will be held on November 3.

After processing 98.6% of the protocols, 50.27% of Moldovan citizens (740,725) voted in favor of joining the EU in the referendum, while 49.73% (732,891) voted against this initiative.

According to the CEC, over 55,000 people refused to cast a ballot in the referendum.

The referendum clearly failed in Moldova’s Gagauz autonomy and at the polling stations where residents from unrecognized Transnistria voted. While in Transnistria 62.56% voted against joining the EU, in Gagauzia 94.84% opposed it. That said, no polling stations were opened within Transnistria.