Maia Sandu won the second round with 58% of the vote,[2][3] becoming the first female President of the country and the first winner from the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS).

Dodon thought that running as a party's candidate could open the way for his opponents to contest the legitimacy of his participation at the constitutional court.

Other key pillars of his campaign were preserving Moldova's territorial sovereignty, strengthening the social security system and promoting Christian and family values.

[27] On 23 September, Sandu announced that her team managed to collect 30,000 signatures in her favor, out of which only 25,000 (the maximum number allowed) were presented to the CEC.

During her campaign launch event, Sandu held 2 speeches, one in Romanian and one in Russian, promising to fight corruption, poverty and to reform the criminal justice system.

[29] Other priorities of her campaign were reducing unemployment, raising the minimum pension to 2,000 lei (around 114 USD) and building closer ties with the European Union.

[35] On 30 October 2020, Sandu officially announced the end of her campaign for the first round, saying that she managed to visit all of Moldova's districts and organize over 300 meetings with voters.

[37] During a press conference, he asked people to record short videos in which they would express their views on his potential candidacy and send them to him before 27 August 2020.

During his campaign launch event, he promised to serve and represent the people, fight corruption and nepotism and solve all issues faced by voters.

Usatîi accused him of spending a week in a luxury resort financed by taxpayer money,[41] fabricating opinion polls,[42] illegally spying on his campaign[43] and attempting to rig the election by paying Moldovan citizens from Transnistria to vote for him.

Her campaign prioritized regional development, improvements in agriculture, strengthening the social security and healthcare systems and fighting corruption.

[63] It focused on eradicating corruption, reforming the judiciary, raising the minimum pension to 2500 lei (around 143 USD), improving Moldova's international credibility, building closer ties with the European Union, promoting family values and preserving national culture.

[64] Throughout his campaign, Năstase emphasized that, according to opinion polls, he was the only one able to beat incumbent President Dodon in a potential runoff and that Sandu would lose in the second round in the same way she did in the 2016 elections.

[67] Deliu, a parliamentarian from the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova, launched his candidacy from his home village of Malcoci at the beginning of October.

[76] After it became clear that the negotiations would most likely fail, the MPU nominated Dorin Chirtoacă for the presidency but emphasized that they were still open to the idea of there being a joint candidate.

[78] After initially invalidating a large portion of the signatures Chirtoacă presented,[79] which could have resulted in him being denied registration, the CEC revised its decision and registered him as a candidate on 5 October 2020.

[81] Being one of the explicitly unionist candidates, Chirtoacă's campaign rested on the advantages of a potential unification of Moldova and Romania including higher wages, pensions and subsidies in agriculture, improvements in healthcare, reductions in unemployment, decentralization, regional development and increased security provided by NATO.

[84][85] After this, Moldovan citizens opposing Dodon, including members of the diaspora who were attacked by him earlier, started calling him a porumbel ("pigeon").

[91] According to Central Election Commission regulations, organizers had to ensure equal access to the debates for all candidates and conduct them in a fair and impartial manner.

Because most polls gave an edge to incumbent president Dodon, Maia Sandu's result was considered unexpected by experts.

[100] Multiple analysts voiced the opinion that Renato Usatîi, who came in third and positioned himself as a centrist, was expected to play a decisive role in the second round by announcing his support for one of the two candidates.

[121] In 2021, leaked documents from the German newspaper Bild showed Russia supported the campaign for the 2020 Moldovan presidential election of Dodon and other candidates considered "friendly" to the country.

PSRM denied these claims and announced it would file a lawsuit against the German newspaper and all Moldovan media "that took part in the dissemination of this blatant slander".