Experts: People Expressed a Vote of No Confidence in the Ruling Regime

The actual failure of the EU referendum is a result of the protest vote of citizens who were tired of the one-man rule of Maia Sandu and PAS and did not want to let them further usurp power in Moldova

Anton ŠVEC: Watching yesterday’s vote count was a roller coaster ranging from satisfaction with the resounding failure of the PAS regime and camarilla Maia Sandu to sincere disappointment that theft, corruption and subjective trivialities had formally provided the ruling party with an excuse for victory speeches. If the first round of the election of the head of state was relatively predictable - both main candidates gained the minimum number of votes to continue the intriguing struggle, the referendum vote was a unique surprise. Sandu’s team tried to offer the voters another poor-quality “geopolitical dish” under the slogans of European integration and through blatant Western agitation not only to provide their boss with convincing figures, but also to usurp powers in favor of the PAS parliamentary majority. The people did not lap that up and expressed a vote of no confidence in the ruling party and its patrons in the European cabinets, refusing to recognize the right of those whom they had once elected to change legislation independently, covering it up with obligations to Brussels. Formally, the majority of those who took the second ballot still supported the constitutional amendments. The difference is less than 1% or 15 thousand votes. But the mechanics of counting (before processing over 90% of the protocols the leading answer was ‘no’, at certain stages with a handicap of about 10%) allows purely statistically and sociologically to suspect mass violations at foreign polling stations. It is not coincidence that at some point the publication of the voting results was slowed down (95% of protocols were counted much faster than the remaining 5%), and the CEC website crashed several times. Moreover, within Moldova, 55% of those who voted were against the constitutional amendments. And diaspora votes were partly falsified, partly incorrectly counted (200 thousand ballots were printed for Italy, for Russia - only 10 thousand). But even with massive violations and the use of administrative resources, an unfortunate mistake played a decisive role - the call by a number of opposition politicians to boycott the referendum, although it was obvious that the 33% turnout threshold would inevitably be reached and the plebiscite would take place. This subjective trifle cost us dearly, as about 50,000 voters who voted for the president did not take or spoilt the second ballot paper. If Igor Dodon, who refused to vote in the referendum, had come to his polling station in the afternoon and set the wrong personal example just a few hours later, no fraud would have saved the PAS regime. A ‘No’ even from half of those who did not take the ballot paper would have been the final verdict for Maia Sandu and her entourage. Today, Sandu, her campaigners and Western curators are trying to “be good actors in the bad performance”. Siegfried Muresan from the European Parliament has already called the referendum results “a clear victory of citizens for the European future of the country”. Nicu Popescu cites examples that Sweden joined the European Union following the results of the referendum, when only 52% of those who voted were in favor, while Great Britain left the EU with the same percentage. But, firstly, Moldova does not even have such figures and, secondly, in those countries all those who wished to vote were able to do so, and there was no falsification. The fact is that Maia Sandu has neither legal nor moral right to sign amendments to the constitution in the next two weeks, being the acting president, i.e. a temporary one - the people did not vote for them, and she is not the president now, until she has confirmed her mandate in the second round. In general, such a decision can now only be made by a legitimate president and a legitimate parliamentary majority following additional comprehensive consultations with society. The current PAS majority has been denied a mandate, and in the most popular way possible. Now its legitimacy is even less than that of acting president Maia Sandu, and this will not change until the parliamentary elections. After all, the people did not vote against integration into the European Union - due to the political manipulations of PAS in the formulation of questions, the referendum was not about that, they voted against the parliamentary majority, which they no longer trust. And this protest vote has its specific reasons, not necessarily related to the absolutely ludicrous agitation of the West or the attempts of PAS to usurp all branches of power. I will name one specific person - MP Vasile Soimaru, a man who will never win a competitive election in our country for any office other than list-based or appointed. A man who revealed ahead of time the plans of the PAS majority in Parliament to ban the Moldovan Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, to which the majority of citizens belong. To ban it solely for political reasons. And if we take Ukraine as an example, the situation there is absolutely different. There the ban was prepared and discussed for many years, in a much more secular state, and with the message that it will be replace by own autocephalous Ukrainian Church. Not the Bessarabian church of the Romanian patriarchate. I.e., religious desovereignization and religious unirea a couple of months before “such a decisive vote” in a country with a large number of believers and people who sincerely fear the loss of statehood due to Anschluss by Romania. The PAS regime has set itself up. Citizens have only to derail it on 3 November and restore democracy, justice and, if the majority so decides, European integration, but with no excesses. Christian RUSSU: Our electorate last night stirred the situation up. The top of the ruling party, who believed in their supremacy, are down. The teams of many opposition candidates are shocked by success. And the entire expert community, which did not work for the ruling party, has finally abandoned hopelessness and despondency. The people once again unashamedly pointed at the door to the stale authorities, just as they did to Voronin, Filat and Dodon. Everything is natural: PAS did not want to hear about the problems with anti-rating, Maia Sandu was afraid to give bad news, and the court sociologists were drawing perfect figures. In the mood of the Brezhnev era. None of the opposition candidates, as it turned out, were able to adequately assess the protest potential, as they couldn’t enter every house and learn all the stories of woes and bitterness of unfulfilled hopes. All those who, having heeded the call of the authorities, returned from faraway, but wele left behind. All those who, believing the promises, did not leave and stayed in their places: farmers, railway workers, bus drivers, workers of closed enterprises, teachers, doctors. All those who did not get even crumbs from Sandu’s ‘pie’. They did not take at face value the flow of aggressive propaganda, the threat of Russians and war, seeing in it only the selfish intent of the elite and its minions. The population turned the main weapon of the authorities, the referendum, against them. Now cooled heads say that the calculations are correct, even if the difference is 1%. We hear Sandu’s conciliatory but still arrogant speeches, readiness to debate with a counter-candidate, calls for the right-wing opposition to unite. What we do not hear is gratitude and respect for another lesson learnt. What’s next? Will there be mobilization of the electorate? Will there be new dirt and new threats? None of this matter so much now, because the citizens of the country have declared loudly and publicly that they will not allow to deceive themselves. Now all those who crave for power will have to reflect on the fact that slogans and sweet promises are not enough - people are waiting for real deeds.