Stoianoglo rejects accusations of electoral bribery: "I did not buy votes"
The former general prosecutor Alexandr Stoianoglo, who is running for the position of president of the Republic of Moldova, claims that he never resorted to buying votes in his favour. Even so, the socialist-backed candidate did not publicly condemn the attempts of vote-buying, nor did he comment on the accusations that his campaign was supported by the oligarch Ilan Şor, convicted in the "Bank fraud" case.
"In my political activity, I never bought voters' votes. I also participated in the elections for the position of Bascan of Gagauzia, I never bought votes, because I am a man of the law. I assure you that this did not happen in these elections, neither on my part, nor on the part of the Socialist Party," Stoianoglo declared.
The candidate of the Socialists called on citizens to avoid political statements, or, says Stoianoglo, "fixing corruption actions is within the competence of law enforcement bodies and only they can make such statements".
We mention that, today, Alexandr Stoianoglo's counter-candidate, President Maia Sandu, who is running on behalf of PAS, denounced mass corruption actions in the October 20 election by the "Sor criminal group". She urged her opponent to condemn electoral corruption and appeal to citizens not to be used in actions to destabilize the situation in the country. Moreover, Sandu urged Stoianoglo to appeal to citizens not to take bribes to vote and to make it clear that taking bribes is a crime.
We mention in this context that a new investigation published by "Ziarul de Gardă" shows that the network of the oligarch Ilan Șor, who before October 20 would have corrupted the voters to compromise the result of the referendum and hijacked the European course of the Republic of Moldova, before the second round of the presidential elections would have been mobilized in a campaign aimed at supporting the socialist candidate, Alexandr Stoianoglo.
So far, law enforcement officers have imposed fines worth over two million lei for voter-buying. Recently, the general prosecutor Ion Munteanu declared that the phenomenon of electoral bribery and the financing of political parties orchestrated by the "Sor criminal group" has reached an unprecedented scale. Starting with September 2022, massive flows of illegal money have arrived from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Moldova. Initially – through smuggling or cryptocurrencies, and later – through a Russian bank under international sanctions. 50 million lei were raised and confiscated, said Munteanu. 28 people were detained, and 35 are accused.
