CHISINAU, November 30. /TASS/. Voting at Moldova’s parliamentary elections is over as polling stations closed at 21:00 local time (22:00 Moscow time), chairman of the Central Election Commission Iurie Ciocan said on Sunday. 

According to preliminary results, the voter turnout exceeded 51.2% some two hours before the end of voting, which was however by four percent less than at the previous parliamentary elections in 2010. The lower limit of the voter turnout for the elections to be recognized as valid is 33.3% of the 2,803,120 eligible voters. 

“In general, we can see a correct election process, with relatively high turnout. According to police reports, there were no serious violations,” Ciocan said.

Commenting on the situation in Moscow, where thousands of Moldovans queued at the polling station to have a chance to cast their votes, he said closing hour might be postponed by one of two hours in case there were ballot papers left. “The voting time might be prolonged but only in case it is necessary and if there are ballot papers. Each polling station outside Moldova received 3,000 copies. When all of them are used, the polling station is closed,” he said. 

Leaders of opposition parties earlier on Sunday expressed concern over the organization of voting in Moscow and over malfunctions of the electronic vote counting system. “We think it was done deliberately to exclude from the voting process almost a third of voters who work in Russia and to organize vote rigging in the process of manual vote counting,” said leader of the Party of Socialists Igor Dodon. Observers from the Communist Party said people had been taken to a number of polling stations in buses, which is prohibited. 

The non-government organization Monitorizare Promo-LEX, which delegated its observers to all polling stations across Moldova, claimed seals on ballot boxes at some stations had been broken.

The Central Election Commission will announce preliminary results at 23:30 local time (00:30 Moscow time), Ciocan said.