July 13 (SeeNews) - Pro-European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) backed by president Maia Sandu will hold 63 of 101 seats in Moldova's next parliament, final official results of the July 11 election showed.
PAS is followed by the electoral bloc formed by pro-Russian Socialist Party (PSRM) led by former president Igor Dodon and the Communist Party led by Vladimir Voronin, which won 32 seats, Central Electoral Commission (CEC) data showed on Monday evening.
One more political formation, Sor Party led by businessman Ilan Sor, made it into the unicameral parliament after winning 6 seats.
Voter turnout in Sunday's election was 48.41%. Turnout in the previous general election held in March 2019 was 49%.
Based on 100% of the votes counted, PAS came first with 52.80% support, followed by the Socialist-Communist bloc with 27.17% and Sor party with 5.74%, data published by CEC showed. In order to enter parliament, parties or organisations needed to win at least 5% of the votes, electoral blocs of two or more parties needed 7%, while for independent candidates the threshold was set at 2%.
CEC will now send the final results to the Constitutional Court to confirm or deny their legitimacy.
The July 11 vote was held under a new mixed system introduced in 2017, under which 50 MPs are elected on party lists and the remaining 51 are elected in individual constituencies.
Moldova has been run by a caretaker government led by foreign minister Aureliu Ciocoi since December, when former prime minister Ion Chicu resigned in a move aimed to prompt early elections. President Maia Sandu dissolved parliament and called for early elections at the end of April, after the parliamentary majority led by PSRM refused twice to appoint the prime ministers that she had proposed.
(1 euro= 21.4426 Moldovan lei)