ISTANBUL 

Moldovans headed to the polls on Sunday in a runoff presidential election shadowed by allegations of Russian interference, raised by the country's incumbent president.

Voting began at 7 a.m. local time (0500GMT) and will continue until 9 p.m. (1900GMT) across 2,219 polling stations, 231 of which are located abroad in 37 countries.

Moldova’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said that over 2,400 national and international observers have been accredited to monitor the vote.

As of 4 p.m. local time (1400GMT), more than 1.2 million Moldovans have cast their ballots in the vote, making up over 43% of the electorate, the CEC said.

Indicating that two polling stations outside the country have completed their activity, namely the ones in the Chinese and Japanese capitals, the CEC said authorities intervened in 18 isolated cases of electoral fraud and started investigations over suspicions of irregularity.

The runoff follows the first round of voting held two weeks ago, where President Maia Sandu, viewed as pro-Western, fell short of securing a majority for a second term.

In Sunday’s election, she faces a challenge from Alexandr Stoianoglo, Moldova’s former prosecutor general, who is supported by the country's Party of Socialists.

The election coincides with a recent referendum where voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment to set Moldova on a path toward European Union membership.

However, both the election and the referendum have been contentious, with Sandu accusing “criminal groups” allegedly backed by "foreign forces hostile to our national interests" of attempting to disrupt the country’s democratic process to keep the country "trapped in uncertainty and instability."

"We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes – a fraud of unprecedented scale. Their objective was to undermine a democratic process. Their intention is to spread fear and panic in the society,” Sandu stated on X.

The accusations have drawn a response from the Kremlin, with Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov challenging Sandu to produce concrete evidence of the alleged interference.