Moldova holds referendum on whether to elect president by popular vote

CHISINAU, Moldova - Mouldovans went to the polls Sunday to decide whether to elect the country's president by popular vote.

Turnout for the poll was 29.7 per cent, short of the one-third of the 2.66 million voters needed to make it valid, but votes were still to be counted from 75 polling stations abroad in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Russia, the Central Electoral Committee said.

Final results are expected Monday. There was confusion with turnout figures and Moldovan election officials earlier gave a higher figure for turnout before revising it without explanation. The country was using a new electronic voting system for the first time.

If the referendum is not valid, Parliament will be dissolved. There are 600,000 Moldovans working abroad, many in Italy, Greece and Russia.

Polls showed that a majority favours the pro-European ruling alliance's proposal to abandon the current system, under which Parliament elects the president with a three-fifths majority. The referendum is meant to free the former Soviet republic from political deadlock. Parliament has twice failed to elect a new president.

Voters were asked whether they agree that the Constitution should be changed to allow the popular vote.

But the Communist Party, which ruled the former Soviet republic for eight years until 2009, appealed to Moldovans to boycott the referendum, which it called "undemocratic."

The Communists favour the current system, where a candidate needs the votes of 61 of the Parliament's 101 members to win. The pro-European alliance has 53 seats in Parliament — not enough to elect a president — with the rest belonging to the Communist Party.