CHISINAU (Sputnik) — Moldova's Socialist Party front-runner Igor Dodon announced his second-round victory earlier in the day.
"Igor Dodon won 52.12 percent or 835,210 votes, [opposition candidate from Action and Solidarity Party] Maia Sandu [won] 47.82 percent or 765,460 votes," the commission said in a statement.
During his election campaign, Dodon pledged to restore "friendly relations" with Russia and even to take the country into the Eurasian Economic Union that comprises Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia. In response to electorate's waning enthusiasm for the EU, he also promised to revoke Moldova's association agreement with the EU signed in mid-2014, though lately he seemed less committed to that pledge.