The president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, a pro-Western leader, won re-election yesterday in a runoff vote against a rival candidate she had denounced as “Moscow’s man.” With more than 98 percent of ballots counted, official results gave Sandu about 55 percent of the vote.
The vote was held a week after a contested election in Georgia, another former Soviet territory, handed victory to the Moscow-leaning governing party, and it was closely watched by the U.S., the E.U. and Russia as a critical test of Moldova’s direction.
