Moldova’s pro-Western ruling party has decisively won a parliamentary election which was plagued by claims of Russian interference and was widely seen as a definitive choice between staying in Europe’s orbit or lurching into Moscow’s. The Russia-friendly Alternativa Bloc came third, followed by the populist Our Party. The pivotal ballot in the nation’s future Sunday pitted the governing pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity against several Russia-friendly opponents. The country has, in recent years, moved westwards in attaining candidate status to the EU in 2022, just after Russia invaded Ukraine. On Friday, President Maia Sandu called the vote the country’s “most consequential election”.