CHISINAU -- Moldova's Constitutional Court on October 31 validated the result of the country's October 26 referendum on integration into the European Union.
The court affirmed previously announced results that the referendum passed with 50.38 percent of the vote in favor of Moldova pursuing EU membership, a wafer-thin margin of less than 1 percent.
SEE ALSO: What Moldova And Georgia Showed Us About Pushback Against Russian InfluenceWhile the referendum has no legal impact on Moldova's negotiations with Brussels, the very narrow approval margin came as a surprise to many observers who had expected a more decisive vote in favor of the former Soviet republic's path toward Euro-Atlantic integration.
Pro-EU President Maia Sandu said that the balloting came under an "unprecedented" assault from "criminal groups" that she said tried to buy as many as 300,000 votes with tens of millions of euros in an attempt to "undermine the democratic process."
Sandu, who during her first four-year term steered Moldova away from Russia's long-standing influence, won the first round of her reelection vote held on the same day as the referendum with a little over 42 percent, not enough to avoid a runoff vote scheduled for November 3.
Under Sandu's government, Moldova secured EU candidate status in 2022 and opened accession talks with the bloc earlier this year after siding with Ukraine following Russia's unprovoked invasion, in a radical U-turn toward the West and away from Moscow's decades-long influence.
She will face Moscow-backed former Prosecutor-General Alexandr Stoianoglo, who has been facing accusations of corruption and garnered a little more than 26 percent in the first round.
Russia, which was accused by Western officials of election interference ahead of the vote, has rejected the accusations, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claiming that the final results of both the presidential election and the referendum were "rigged" in Sandu's favor.