Moldova's ruling pro-EU party has pulled comfortably ahead of its Russian-leaning rival in a crucial parliamentary election as final results trickled in, a relief for the government as it seeks to keep the country out of Moscow's orbit.

With around 96 per cent of votes counted early on Monday, the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) was close to winning 50 per cent of the vote, well ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc on under 25 per cent. Voter turnout was more than 52 percent, higher than in recent years.

While still short of a majority in the 101-seat chamber, the preliminary count gets PAS closer to the threshold than many political analysts had expected and could make coalition-building less fraught than feared.

And with more ballots to come in from overseas voters,

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