Moldovans are casting ballots in a tense presidential run-off as pro-Western incumbent, Maia Sandu, hopes to win a second term amid allegations of Russian meddling.

Polls opened on Sunday at 7am local time (05:00 GMT) and will close at 9pm (19:00 GMT). More than three million people are registered to vote in the elections that will set the course of Moldova’s path to European Union membership

Sandu secured 42 percent in the first round of the election held on October 20, but failed to win an outright majority. Her challenger, Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general who favours closer ties with Russia, came second with 26 percent of the votes.

The fortunes of Sandu, who set Moldova on the long path of EU accession talks in June, will be closely followed in Brussels a week after Georgia, another ex-Soviet state hoping to join, re-elected a governing party seen as increasingly pro-Russian.

Stoianoglo says as president he would back EU integration, but would also develop ties with Russia in the national interest. He has promised to try to revive cheap Russian gas supplies and said he would meet President Vladimir Putin if Moldovans wanted it.

A poll released by research company iData indicates a tight race that leans towards a narrow Sandu victory, an outcome that might rely on Moldova’s large diaspora.

Moldova’s diaspora played a key role in a nationwide referendum held on October 20,   when a narrow majority of 50.35 percent voted in favour of securing Moldova’s path towards EU membership.

The results of the October 20 votes – both presidential as well as referendum – were marred by allegations of Russian meddling amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

Sunday’s elections are being held amid allegations of planned vote rigging and intimidation.

On Friday, Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean said people throughout the country were receiving “anonymous death threats via phone calls” in what he called “an extreme attack” to scare voters in the former Soviet republic, which has a population of about 2.5 million people.

These acts of intimidation have only one purpose: to create panic and fear,” Recean said in a statement posted on social media. “I assure you that state institutions will ensure order and protect citizens.”

Sandu has said the meddling affected the October 20 results and that Shor sought to buy the votes of 300,000 people, more than 10 percent of the population.

The police have cracked down to try to avoid a repeat of what they said was a vast vote-buying scheme deployed by Russian-backed fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor in the first round and a referendum on the EU’s aspirations on October 20.

On Thursday, prosecutors also raided a political party headquarters and said 12 people were suspected of paying voters to select a candidate in the presidential race. A criminal case was also opened in which 40 state agency employees were suspected of taking electoral bribes.

Russia has denied interfering and Shor has denied wrongdoing.

The outcome of the vote is likely to set the tone for next year’s parliamentary elections, where Sandu’s party is projected to struggle to retain its majority, which will determine the stripe of the future government.

Moldova applied to join the EU in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Sandu portrays Stoianoglo as the Kremlin’s man and a political Trojan horse, painting Sunday’s vote as a choice between a bright future in the EU by 2030 and one of uncertainty and instability.

Stoianoglo says that is untrue and that she has failed to look out for the interests of common Moldovans. He accuses Sandu of divisive politics in a country that has a Romanian-speaking majority and a significant Russian-speaking minority.

(Aljazeera)