Moldova heads to the polls on Sunday for the second round of a tightly contested presidential election pitting a pro-European challenger against the countrys Moscow-backed incumbent.
The tiny ex-Soviet nation votes under the watchful eye of Russia, which wants polarised Moldova to remain in its sphere of influence as several Kremlin-aligned governments are rocked by political unrest.
In the first-round vote earlier this month, pro-European Maia Sandu a 48-year-old centre-right politician won a surprise victory.
Opinion polls put the rivals neck-and-neck before the election run-off [Sergei Gapon/AFP]
Sandu, who worked for the World Bank and briefly served as prime minister, won more than 36 percent of the vote against pro-Russian incumbent Igor Dodons 33 percent.
Caught off guard by the electoral setback, Dodon urged his supporters at a rally on Friday to turn out for the vote and take to the streets after Sundays ballot to protect our victory.
The Kremlin-backed candidate, reportedly aided by Russian advisers, has stepped up rhetoric against Sandu saying his opponents have crossed red lines.
If we show weakness, we will lose our country, Dodon said at Fridays rally.
Sandu, who heads the Party of Action and Solidarity has promised to wage a fight against endemic corruption in the country of some 3.5 million wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania.
Moldova has been rocked by multiple political crises and a $1bn bank fraud scheme equivalent to nearly 15 percent of the countrys annual output.
Moldova can be a good country, a state without corruption. A state where thieves are punished. And decent people have good jobs, wages and pensions. A country where children grow up with their parents, Sandu said in a recent post on Instagram.
The appeal has resonance in one of Europes poorest countries where as many as 40 percent of Moldovas citizens are estimated to have travelled abroad to work.
Polls published in the run-up to Sundays vote showed the two candidates in a tight race that could be decided by the diaspora.
We are a big family scattered all over the world, Sandu said. Its time to live better wherever we are.
Romanias President Klaus Iohannis said he was happy with Sandus first-round victory.
Faced this year with multiple protest movements against its allies in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, Russia will be watching Sundays vote closely.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last month called on Moldovans to cast their votes for Dodon pointing to close economic ties between the countries.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russias Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), recently alleged that Washington was inciting the Moldovan opposition to take to the streets after the vote to denounce its validity and demand a rerun.
In the first-round vote earlier this month, pro-European Maia Sandu won a surprise victory.
