BUCHAREST, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The presidential runoff election is ongoing in Moldova on Sunday amid coronavirus outbreaks, with incumbent President Igor Dodon and former Prime Minister Maia Sandu competing for the country's highest position in the next four years.
"I today voted for a change, for Moldova, which we will all be proud of, for Moldova in which the people look at tomorrow with confidence and live in joy, alongside their families," stated Sandu, leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity, who got the most votes during the first round of elections.
"Today we decide how the people in the Republic of Moldova will live during the next four years. Today we decide how the Republic of Moldova will start a new decade," Sandu added, urging voters to actively participate in the vote.
Dodon, who is supported by the country's largest Socialist Party, declared that he voted for the independence and statehood of the Republic of Moldova, for the strengthening of its statehood.
He also stressed that he voted "for the changes, as the country needs changes."
"I voted for improvements as we need high-quality changes, not shocks and crises, and these will be ensured. We have a team to ensure these changes," the incumbent president noted.
This is the second duel between the two. Dodon defeated Sandu in the second round of voting in November 2016 and won his first presidential mandate.
Over 2,000 polling stations were open on Sunday to an estimated 3.2 million voters. Among them, 139 stations are opened abroad. The most overseas polling stations are recorded in Italy, with 31, followed by Russia, Romania and the United States, with 17, 13, and 12 respectively. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, voters are asked to enter the polling booths with protective masks and bring their own pens to sign the lists.
Moldova held a presidential election on Nov. 1 and the runoff election was decided to take place between the top two candidates, as none of the nine candidates competing in the presidential race received an absolute majority of the votes -- 50 percent plus one vote -- during the first round of elections.
The latest opinion polls showed that the support ratings of the two candidates are evenly matched. According to local analysts, Sandu, who took the lead with 36.16 percent of the votes in the first round of elections, will mainly rely on the support of overseas voters, while Dodon, who ranked second with 32.61 percent of the votes in the first round, has his voter base mainly in the country, including voters of large ethnic Russian minority in the country.
It is worth mentioning that in the first round of voting, Sandu received 50,000 fewer votes than Dodon in the country, but because of the more than 70 percent of overseas votes she won, she ended up with 487,600 votes against 439,800, about 50,000 more than her rival. Enditem