Moldova's three main pro-Europe parties appeared on Monday to be able to form a new coalition with most of the vote from an election on Sunday counted, despite the pro-Moscow Socialist Party taking first place.
With 87 percent of the vote counted, according to the election authorities, the three parties — the Liberal Democrats, the Liberals and the Democrats — had a combined vote of 44 percent — enough to win a majority in the 101-seat parliament.
This was in spite of the pro-Russia Socialist Party taking a surprise lead with 21.5 percent of the vote and the communists, who wish to revise part of a trade deal with the European Union, taking third place with 17.8 percent.