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by Chen Jin, Lin Huifen
CHISINAU, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Moldova's presidential candidate Igor Dodon, leader of the Socialist Party, emerged Monday as the winner of the presidential runoff, preliminary results released by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) showed.
The pro-Russia candidate got 52.29 percent of the votes, and his rival Maia Sandu received 47.71 percent, with 99.9 percent of the ballots counted.
The CEC said 835,010 voters chose Dodon as their next president, while 761,934 gave their votes to Sandu.
Supporters of Sandu are expected to gather late Monday in the central square of Chisinau to protest the results, as they believed the arrangements for this runoff were unfair for the pro-European candidate.
Late Sunday, Sandu told the media soon after the closing of polls that the runoff was organized badly and there weren't enough ballots at some polling stations and many people were unable to vote.
Sandu complained that her team had earlier asked for setting up additional polling stations for Moldovan expatriates, but their requests were ignored.
The insufficient amount of ballot papers abroad is seen by Sandu's supporters as an attempt to minimize the amount of votes in western European cities, an important pool of votes for the candidate.
After clinching the victory, Dodon called on Sandu to prevent destabilization in the country.
"I think everyone realized that we won in this campaign...We must do everything possible to avoid a split in society," Dodon said.
Moldova held the presidential runoff on Sunday, as none of the nine candidates competing in the presidential race received an absolute majority of the votes in the first round of direct presidential elections on Oct. 30. The presidential race marked the first time in 16 years that the country was electing its leader by national vote instead of having parliament select the head of state.
The presidential elections are generally viewed in the country as a battle between pro-Russian and pro-EU camps.
Landlocked between Romania and Ukraine, the former Soviet republic is still shrouded in the shadow of a corruption scandal in which about 1 billion U.S. dollars, or around 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), disappeared from its banking system.
The scandal sparked large-scale protests last year, eroding confidence in pro-European politicians that have led the country since 2009 and has partially contributed to the Socialists' gain in popularity.
