Verkiezingen in Moldavië gewonnen door pro-Europese partijen, communisten wel grootste (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Pro-EU and pro-reform opposition parties have done better than expected in Moldova's snap elections. But tough coalition talks lie ahead.
With 85 percent of ballots counted on Thursday morning (30 July), the four main opposition factions got 47.5 percent and the Communist party got 45.2 percent.
The result comes despite the Communist government's near monopoly on media and significant outside help. Russia recently dangled Moldova - Europe's poorest country - $500 million (€350 million) of aid and China offered $1 billion.
The new government will depend on whether Democratic Party leader Marian Lupu makes a deal with the three other opposition factions or with the Communist party.
Mr Lupu held the powerful post of parliament speaker for the Communist side until June.
But he left the Communists to join a small reformist group - the Democratic Party - following a bloody government crackdown on demonstrators and the Communists' decision not to put him forward for president.
"Expect a couple of months of heavy horse-trading," European Council on Foreign Relations analyst Nicu Popescu predicts in his EUobserver blog.
The snap elections were called after widespread accusations of fraud in an earlier poll in April, which ended in violent protests and deaths in police custody.
The EU in the run-up to Wednesday's vote laid out conditions for deeper integration.
Free and fair elections, respect for human rights and the creation of a credible enquiry into April's events would secure full participation in the EU's "Eastern Partnership" scheme and EU advocacy with international lenders, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said.
Moldova's future EU relations will be complicated by pro-Russian rebels in the breakaway Transniestria province, who have risen in stature due to the political mess in Chisinau.
But the election result is likely to spell the departure of Moldova's 68-year old acting president, Vladimir Voronin.