Moldova Referendum on Goal of E.U. Membership Passes by a Thin Margin

A referendum in Moldova intended to put an end to decades of swerving between East and West yielded a microscopic win on Monday for voters who favor amending the Constitution to lock in alignment with Europe rather than Russia.

The result of the referendum held Sunday was so tight, and the mandate for an irreversible path to Europe so thin, that Moldova, a former Soviet Republic and one of Europe’s poorest countries, looked stuck in a mire of uncertainty over its direction.

The referendum has been closely watched by Russia, the European Union and the United States. The results highlighted the deep divisions found in many formerly Soviet lands — divisions that Russia has labored to widen and, in the case of Ukraine, Moldova’s neighbor to the east, exploited to set the stage for its full-scale military invasion in February 2022.

Moldova’s firmly pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, finished far ahead of 10 rival candidates in an election that was also held on Sunday but she did not win the majority needed to avoid a runoff vote on Nov. 3.

In a statement Monday afternoon, she declared victory “in an unfair fight” but warned that “we can only prevent disaster” if voters turned out for the runoff.

Despite a slew of advance opinion polls showing that a substantial majority wanted to break out of Russia’s orbit of influence, near-final results announced Monday afternoon by the central electoral commission gave the “Yes” vote 50.46 percent against 49.54 for “No.”