Pro-EU party leads in Moldova parliamentary election: Early count

Preliminary election results show the president’s centre-right party leading with more than 44 percent of votes.

President Maia Sandu’s pro-European party is leading in Moldova’s elections as vote counting is under way in Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections she called to shore up her position against pro-Russia forces. With more than 40 percent of the ballots counted, Sandu’s centre-right Action and Solidarity (PAS) party secured more than 44 percent of the votes, according to the electoral commission. The party’s main rivals from the coalition of socialists and Communists led by former Kremlin-backed president Igor Dodon and former president Vladimir Voronin had nearly 33 percent of the votes.