Sandu warned before the election that pro-Russian forces in the country, particularly fugitive business magnate Ilan Shor, had funnelled money into Moldova to "buy" voters. Shor's allies were barred from running two days before the first round and he complained from exile in Israel that the ruling had cost him electoral success. An independent won in Comrat, a town in the south where one of Shor's allies had won a regional vote earlier this year. Ion Ceban, running under a party he founded, was re-elected mayor of the capital Chisinau in the first round, though the president's supporters suggest he may hold pro-Russian sympathies. Reporting by Alexander Tanas; Editing by Ron Popeski and Will DunhamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Persons: Maia Sandu, ZAK BENNETT, Maia Sandu's, Sandu, Ilan Shor, Shor's, Ion Ceban, Igor Grosu, Shor, Arina Korsicova, Alexander Tanas, Ron Popeski, Will Dunham Organizations: USAID, Democracy, Ford Foundation Center, Social Justice, 78th United Nations General, Rights, Sunday, European Union, Sandu's Party of Action, Solidarity, Socialist Party, PAS, Constitutional, The Organization, Security, Cooperation, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, Rights CHISINAU, Moldova, Russian, Ukraine, Romania, Israel, Moldova's, Balti, Russia, Comrat, Calaras, Chisinau, Europe