MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. The first round of the presidential elections in Moldova has revealed that the society is deeply-divided and discontent with the policies of the pro-Western government of the republic is growing, Bogdan Tirdea, member of the Moldovan parliament, told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

According to the lawmaker, the government is responding to this by persecuting the opposition, as well as intimidating people with war and an economic crisis in the event of its defeat.

"The country is deeply divided politically and socially. <…> And [incumbent President] Maia Sandu is deepening this divide by simply promoting nationalist, Russophobic, and sometimes even Nazi messages. It concerns her agitators and supporters who beat up young people in broad daylight who do not want to speak Romanian or agitators of [her election opponent] Alexandru Stoianoglo. They are thrown out of public transport, they are not served in pharmacies, and so on. There is blatant intimidation of the people - [there are] searches, arrests of citizens under the pretext that they allegedly took money during the elections and voted against Maia Sandu," ·irdea said.

He drew attention to the fact that none of 10 presidential candidates supported Sandu on the eve of the second round of elections. However, many of them declared their support for Stoianoglo.

"This fact, as well as the huge anti-rating, deprives her of the opportunity to win the elections fairly. But she has huge administrative resources. That's what she's counting on," the politician noted.

Tirdea also said that Sandu is putting pressure on her opponents.

"There are practically no opposition media left. Eighty information portals have been closed, even politicians' Telegram channels are blocked, and the same is true for TikTok. <…> They are making sanction lists, carrying out searches, publishing lists with the names of people who allegedly took money for their votes. <…> People’s discontent is boiling. We'll see what it will result in in the coming days," Tsirdea said.

The leaders of the first round of the presidential elections on October 20 were Maia Sandu, who received 42.49% of the vote, and former Prosecutor General Alexander Stoianoglo with 25.95%. On the same day, a referendum was held on amending the Constitution of Moldova on the irreversibility of the country's European course with 50.35% voted for and 49.65% voted against the amendment. According to experts, the referendum results became a "cold shower" for Sandu, revealing a rift in Moldovan society.

The second round of the presidential elections in Moldova is scheduled for November 3.