Of the 11 candidates who managed to collect the necessary signatures from voters, only one will take over the management of the country for the next four years. The decision will be taken at the polls on October 20. IPN News Agency provides a comprehensive description of each presidential election candidate, including their professional and personal background, held positions, declared income and property, as well as their promises for the future of the Republic of Moldova. Know the candidates, choose responsibly!
Incumbent President Maia Sandu was nominated for office of President by the Party of Action and Solidarity, which she founded in 2016 and headed until 2020, the year she won the presidential election. Currently, the party is led by Igor Grosu, Speaker of Parliament.
Maia Sandu was born on May 24, 1972 in Risipeni village of Fălești district. In 1994, she graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, the Faculty of Management. From 1995 to 1998, she studied at the Academy of Public Administration in Chisinau, obtaining a master’s degree in international relations.
Between July 1994 and March 1998, she worked as a consultant, deputy head of division at the Ministry of Economy. Since March 1998 until August 2005, she served as an economist at the World Bank Office in Chisinau. From August 2005 until July 2006, she headed the General Macroeconomic Policies and Development Programs Division of the Ministry of Economy and Trade. Between 2006 and 2009, she worked as a consultant in various projects in the fields of good governance and the public administration reform.
She obtained a master’s degree in public policy in 2010, after completing her studies at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in the U.S. Subsequently, between June 2010 and July 2012, she served as an advisor to the Executive Director of the World Bank in Washington.
She returned to Chisinau and, in July 2012, accepted the portfolio of Minister of Education in the Cabinet of the Liberal-Democratic leader Vlad Filat. She held this position until July 2015.
For the first time, she ran in the presidential election in 2016, the year in which she also founded the Party of Action and Solidarity. In the runoff, she won 47.89% of the vote, losing to Socialist candidate Igor Dodon.
After the 2019 parliamentary election, when the mixed electoral system was implemented, she won the seat of MP in Constituency No. 50, western districts of the Republic of Moldova, running on the lists of the ACUM Electoral Bloc, which PAS formed together with the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform”. She sat in Parliament for only a few months as in June 2019 she was appointed Prime Minister. The Sandu Cabinet was dismissed in November of the same year, following a no-confidence motion submitted by the group of the Party of Socialists, which was adopted together with the Democratic Party.
In 2020, Maia Sandu ran again in the presidential election and managed to defeat the same challenger, Igor Dodon, in the runoff, with 57.75% of the poll, obtaining her first presidential term.
In the property declaration for 2023, Maia Sandu indicated over 263,000 lei salaries as President and also over 95,000 lei daily allowance for trips abroad. She also earned €8,000 from the sale of a car. Since 2003, she has owned an apartment with an area of over 74 square meters to the value of over 440,000 lei.
In the campaign launch event this year, Maia Sandu said that in 2024 the people are faced with the most important decision since the declaring of Independence. “We will choose our future. The referendum will pave our future way. And I trust that our nation wants peace,” said the candidate.
The Plan for Moldova, presented by Maia Sandu, is based on three national objectives: care for the people; better living conditions, peace and harmony. Maia Sandu promised to encourage investments in the economy and increase incomes so that the minimum salary reaches at least 10,000 lei and the average salary reaches 25,000 lei per month by 2030. She also promised to introduce, starting with 2025, the minimum pension of 3,300 lei for long career for pensioners with at least 40 years of seniority.
“We will ensure healthy and free food, financed by the state, for first-ninth graders. We will repair and rehabilitate 3,000 kilometers of roads so that all national and regional roads in the country are in good condition. We will repair and equip all polyclinics in the country. We will prepare the country by 2030 for accession to the European Union, where peace is guaranteed. We will maintain an active external dialogue so that our country continues to be heard and respected all over the world,” Maia Sandu promised.
Maia Sandu is listed second on the ballot paper.
