"As of 9:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. GMT), turnout was 10.51% of voters," said the central election commission of the unrecognized republic.
More than 389,000 registered voters have been suggested to answer two questions: whether they want the Transdnestr Region's independence from Moldova and its subsequent joining Russia or whether they believe the region should become part of Moldova.
The referendum will be declared valid if turnout exceeds 50% of the vote. Preliminary results will be made public early Monday. But the overwhelming majority of Transdnestr's predominantly Russian-speaking population is expected to support a union with Russia.
Transdnestrian leader Igor Smirnov sounded optimistic as he left a polling station.
"I believe the majority will speak in favor of a strategic political and economic policy toward development along with the Russian Federation," he said
Russia, which has maintained troops in the region since the bloody 1992 conflict between Transdenstr and Moldova, former Soviet republic, has made no signs it wants to admit Transdestr. But it said referendum results should be recognized.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks this week that the referendum was Transdnestr's attempt to draw attention to the region's unresolved problems and resume talks.
Lavrov highlighted the economic situation in the region aggravated by the new customs regulations Ukraine imposed in March, demanding exports from Transdnestr pass preliminary clearance in Moldova.
Russia also claims that recognizing the sovereignty of Kosovo - actively sought by the predominant Albanian population in the historically Serbian region - would serve as a precedent for legalizing the status of separatist regions in former Soviet republics.
South Ossetia, another unrecognized post-Soviet republic, also plans to hold a referendum in November in order to attain international recognition of its independent status
South Ossetia, which declared independence from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union and a bloody conflict with the Caucasus state in 1991, has also stated its desire to join the neighboring Russian republic of North Ossetia, with which it is ethnically and historically connected. The majority of people in South Ossetia already hold Russian passports, and the ruble is widely used.
But the European Union and the United States have consistently refused to recognize the post-Soviet breakaway regions' independence, although advocating broad autonomy for them.
