Vasile Kostiuk
On October 3, the Central Election Commission considered these complaints and concluded that all conditions were in place to cancel the registration of an electoral contestant. However, the final decision rests with the Constitutional Court, which will have to pronounce on this issue when approving (or not) the election results. The DA is also deprived of state subsidies. The decision can be appealed in court.
The complaints were considered in the absence of the PAS representative, who signed the appeal on behalf of the party – Sergiu Gerciu. It demanded to cancel the registration of the DA party as a competitor in the electoral race. Among the reasons is that on the “day of silence”, September 27, the leader of the Romanian party Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), Gheorghe Simion, allegedly urged citizens to vote for the DA party led by Vasile Costiuc.
In the same context, in response to the CEC appeal, the Information and Security Service (SIS) stated “the existence of an infrastructure of TikTok accounts that promote both political projects in the electoral campaign”. The letter specifies that between August 28 and September 28, 2025, the same 128 TikTok accounts posted comments on both George Simion’s and Vasile Kostiuc’s publications. Ultimately, the IRB recorded “the presence of signs of inauthentic behavior”.
It should be recalled that Simion is on the list of persons banned from entering Moldova for reasons of national security.
For its part, the National Inspectorate of Investigations of the General Inspectorate of Police speaks of “manipulation and misinformation of public opinion”. Referring to media materials, the authors of the appeal also allude to a certain network that “shows clear signs of inauthentic coordinated behavior to promote the party “Democrația Acasă” and its leader Vasile Costiuc”. According to them, the network allegedly consists of more than a dozen active accounts “supported by 993 bot-like accounts”.
In addition, earlier Pavel Postica, vice chairman of the CEC, stated that “in the case of electoral participants who used the method of promotion in online networks, the figures from the financial management reports do not fully coincide with the data provided by banks and advertising platform libraries.” The CEC required all election participants to submit invoices and payment orders for online advertising. And the DA party received a warning for not indicating the expenses used for the TikTok platform.
DA leader Vasile Costiuc believes that “the PAS authority is preparing public opinion to steal the mandates legally obtained by the Democrația Acasă party.” He said that the party was so active that it did not need “inauthentic accounts”.
“In the election campaign for the parliamentary elections, the Democrația Acasă party had no expenses to promote the electoral platform on the internet, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. We are criminally liable for this statement – let the state prove otherwise!”, Costiuc said on his social network page.
Recall, at the parliamentary elections on September 28, Vasile Kostiuk’s party gained 5.62% of votes, overcoming the passage barrier to parliament. In case of non-recognition of its mandates, they will be divided in proportion to the result between the remaining 4 competitors.
In this context, former independent candidate and ex-judge Victoria Sanduta expressed the opinion that “any attempt to cancel the legally obtained votes and redistribute them to other candidates after the elections would be a serious electoral fraud”.
Inga Grigoriu, former deputy of the Dignity and Truth Platform, recalled that in 2018 the votes of Chisinau residents were annulled after Andrei Nastase won the second round of elections in Chisinau. “What happened next? Democracy was annulled, but it led to the fall of the Plahotniuc regime…,” Grigoriu stated.
PSRM leader Igor Dodon reacted with a comment on Facebook, “By excluding a parliamentary party, the PAS government is creating conditions for repeat or early elections.”
And some media close to the authorities hint that Costiuc continues to position himself as a “victim” even after the elections are over.
