Moldova's pro-Western Communist Party has won a majority in Sunday's parliamentary election, but fell short of winning enough seats to re-elect President Vladimir Voronin.
Moldova's parliament elects the country's president. But a party must win 61 seats in the 101-seat legislature to choose a president on its own. The Communist Party should end up with about 56 seats in legislature, while two other parties will hold the rest.
Electoral officials said early Monday that with nearly all votes counted, Mr. Voronin's governing party won 46 percent of the vote - down somewhat from elections four years ago.
The centrist Democratic Moldova Bloc won 28 percent support, and the center-right Popular Christian Democratic Party was third, garnering close to 10 percent of the vote. Several other parties split the remaining votes.
Official results are expected Wednesday.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
