2020 Moldovan presidential election


Presidential elections were held in Moldova on 1 November. The fourth direct elections since independence in 1991, voters had the possibility to either elect a new president or re-elect the incumbent Igor Dodon. Because no candidate received a majority of votes in the first round, a run-off between the top two candidates, Maia Sandu and Dodon, was held on 15 November. Maia Sandu won the second round with 58% of the vote, becoming the first female President of the country and the first winner from the Party of Action and Solidarity.

Electoral system

Eligibility requirements

The Constitution of Moldova defines four conditions that a presidential candidate must satisfy: Moldovan citizenship, at least 40 years of age, residence in Moldova for at least 10 years, and ability to speak the state language. Article 80 of the Constitution establishes a term limit: one individual cannot serve more than 2 terms in a row.

Procedure

Candidates can be nominated by a political party, an electoral alliance, or run as independents. They have to collect at least 15,000 voter signatures in their support from at least half of Moldova's level 2 administrative territorial units with at least 600 signatures in each of them. The election results can be considered valid only if the turnout is above or equal to 33%. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of the votes is elected president. If no candidate receives a majority of the votes, a second round between the top 2 candidates is held two weeks after the first round. The candidate with the largest number of votes in the second round then becomes president.

Candidates

Campaign

The electoral campaign for the first round started on 2 October 2020 and ended on 30 October 2020. The electoral campaign for the second round started on 2 November and ended on 13 November 2020.

First round

Igor Dodon

announced that he intended to run for reelection as an independent candidate on 9 September 2020. His stated reason for running as such was that, according to Moldovan law, the president cannot be a member of a political party. Dodon thought that running as a party's candidate could open the way for his opponents to contest the legitimacy of his participation at the constitutional court.
On 21 September 2020, he presented the necessary signatures supporting him for registration to Central Election Commission of Moldova. The CEC declared that he would be listed fourth on the ballot if registered. Igor Dodon formally launched his campaign on 2 October 2020. Shortly after doing this, he announced that he was not going to make use of billboards and that he would not, at least in the first round, take part in any debates. On 6 October 2020, the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova officially endorsed Dodon's candidacy. Widely regarded as the most pro-Russian candidate on the ballot, Dodon advocated to codify into law the role of the Russian language, make studying Russian compulsory in schools and strengthening strategic partnership with Russia. Other key pillars of his campaign were preserving Moldova's territorial sovereignty, strengthening the social security system and promoting Christian and family values.
After announcing the official end of his campaign for the first round on 30 October, Dodon stated that he had organized more than 240 meetings with voters in hundreds of cities and villages which allowed him to meet more than 45,000 people.

Maia Sandu

announced her candidacy for the 2020 presidential election on 18 July 2020. She was nominated by the Party of Action and Solidarity as a result of a decision made by the National Political Council of the party. After running as a joint candidate of DA and PAS in 2016, she stated that in 2020, a joint pro-European candidate would not be needed as there was not a risk of there being no pro-European candidates in the second round of the election. On 23 September, Sandu announced that her team managed to collect 30,000 signatures in her favor, out of which only 25,000 were presented to the CEC. After registering Sandu's candidacy, CEC announced that she would be listed sixth on the ballot.
On 2 October 2020, Sandu officially launched her campaign. During her campaign launch event, Sandu held 2 speeches, one in Romanian and one in Russian, promising to fight corruption, poverty and to reform the criminal justice system. Other priorities of her campaign were reducing unemployment, raising the minimum pension to 2,000 lei and building closer ties with the European Union. Sandu's campaign accused her main opponent, the incumbent president Dodon, of deliberately hindering criminal justice system reform, poor management of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impact, usage of administrative resources in his campaign and attempts to rig the election. Sandu tried multiple times to organize a debate with Dodon, which the latter refused to attend.
On 30 October 2020, Sandu officially announced the end of her campaign for the first round, saying that she managed to visit all of Moldova's districts and organize over 300 meetings with voters.

Renato Usatîi

On 27 July 2020, Renato Usatîi announced that he wanted the people to decide whether he should run for president in 2020. During a press conference, he asked people to record short videos in which they would express their views on his potential candidacy and send them to him before 27 August 2020. On 26 August 2020, Usatîi posted a YouTube compilation video with people expressing support for his candidacy and claimed that tens of thousands of people asked him to run for president. The next day, Usatîi organized an open air press conference during which he officially announced his candidacy for the 2020 elections.
On 7 September 2020, Usatîi was the second candidate to submit the necessary signatures supporting him to the CEC. Later, it was announced that he would be listed first on the ballot. Usatîi's campaign officially started on 2 October 2020. During his campaign launch event, he promised to serve and represent the people, fight corruption and nepotism and solve all issues faced by voters. During his campaign, Usatîi emerged as a very fierce critic of the incumbent president Dodon. Usatîi accused him of spending a week in a luxury resort financed by taxpayer money, fabricating opinion polls, illegally spying on his campaign and attempting to rig the election by paying Moldovan citizens from Transnistria to vote for him. He also organized events to protest against Dodon and promised to prosecute him if elected. Dodon refused to address Usatîi's accusations and declared that he wanted to focus instead on concrete policies.
Widely considered a populist candidate, Usatîi declared that if elected, he would organize snap parliamentary elections, eradicate corruption by forming a Moldovan equivalent of Mossad, abolish district authorities and intensify economic cooperation with Romania and Ukraine. Usatîi organized multiple meetings with voters and participated in two televised debates.
Usatîi officially announced the end of his campaign for the first round on 30 October 2020.
After his elimination in the first round, Usatîi advised his supporters to vote against Dodon in the second round but did not specifically endorse Sandu.

Violeta Ivanov

In May 2020, Violeta Ivanov left the Democratic Party of Moldova and joined the Șor Party. Shortly after, she became the vice-president of the Șor Party's parliamentary faction.
In August 2020, several media outlets speculated that Ivanov was going to participate in the presidential election. This was confirmed on 6 September 2020, when Ilan Shor announced that Ivanov was the party's candidate for presidency. Ivanov officially started her campaign on 2 October 2020. Her campaign prioritized regional development, improvements in agriculture, strengthening the social security and healthcare systems and fighting corruption. During the campaign, several members of the Pro Moldova parliamentary group endorsed Ivanov.
After the first round concluded, Sandu accused the Șor Party of indirectly bribing voters through their network of social stores. Shor rejected Sandu's accusations and said that his actions should be seen not as bribing but as "investments on the people".
After Ivanov's elimination in the first round, Ilan Shor advised the Șor Party's voters to vote for the candidate that would support the party's program and did not explicitly endorse any of the candidates in the second round.

Andrei Năstase

At the start of 2020, Andrei Năstase promoted the idea of there being a joint pro-European candidate for the 2020 elections, a candidate who was not a member of any political party and would be supported by all the right-wing and unionist parties of Moldova. After the negotiations for a joint candidate failed, Năstase announced on 2 March 2020 that he would participate in the presidential elections.
On 3 October 2020, Năstase officially started his campaign. It focused on eradicating corruption, reforming the judiciary, raising the minimum pension to 2500 lei, improving Moldova's international credibility, building closer ties with the European Union, promoting family values and preserving national culture. Throughout his campaign, Năstase emphasized that, according to opinion polls, he was the only one able to beat incumbent President Dodon in a potential runoff and that Sandu would lose in the second round in the same way she did in the 2016 elections. On 15 October, Năstase publicly asked Sandu to withdraw her candidacy and endorse him for president. Sandu refused his proposal saying that the candidate with the most votes in the first round should be the one facing Dodon in the runoff.
After being eliminated in the first round, Năstase announced his unconditional support for Maia Sandu in the second round.