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Moldova’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that candidates from a pro-Russian political party headed by a fugitive billionaire can stand in the country’s presidential election later this year.
The Șor Party, named after Ilan Shor, a Moldovan businessman living in exile in Israel, was dissolved in June after a court found it had paid citizens to cause disorder and unrest. In October the Moldovan parliament amended the electoral code to bar individuals associated with parties deemed illegal or unconstitutional from running for office for three years.
On Tuesday, however, Moldova’s Constitutional Court ruled that the October changes to the electoral code were themselves unconstitutional, arguing the bill had been rushed through two sittings and that deputies hadn’t had enough time to draw up amendments.
Shor welcomed the verdict.
“This decision not only restores the rights of individuals, but also calls into question the legitimacy of the past elections,” he said Tuesday in a Instagram post.
Shor was sentenced in 2017 to 7.5 years in prison — later increased to 15 years — on fraud and money laundering charges in relation to a $1 billion bank fraud from three years earlier. While under house arrest with an appeal pending, Shor fled to Israel in 2019. Last year he organized protests against Moldova’s pro-EU President Maia Sandu, calling on her to step down over her campaign to secure EU membership. Moldovan authorities said the demonstrations were part of a Russian campaign to replace the incumbent administration with a pro-Kremlin one.
Speaker of Parliament Igor Grosu said the government would respect the Constitutional Court’s March 26 ruling, but would make every effort to prevent anyone linked to criminal organizations from running for public office.
“We will make adjustments in accordance with the court ruling, but we will not allow criminal groups to take control of the electoral process and undermine democracy in Moldova,” Grosu said.
Moldova has long feared Russian intervention in its domestic affairs, most notably in the Kremlin-allied breakaway republic of Transnistria and the autonomous region of Gagauzia in the country’s south.
Transnistria, which sits along Moldova’s border with Ukraine and is mostly populated by Russians, Ukrainians and Moldovans, has functioned as an unrecognized state since the fall of the Soviet Union, keeping its Soviet-era hammer and sickle flag and using Russian as one of its official languages. Moldova has repeatedly accused the Kremlin of attempting to destabilize the region.
Gagauzia is home to a Turkic minority that speaks Russian. Its leader, Yevgenia Gutsul, has close ties to both Shor and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
