Moldovan voters appear to have backed the Eastern European country changing its constitution and committing to joining the EU by the thinnest of margins, the BBC reports.
Official data put Yes on 50.31% and No on 49.69% on Monday morning, with over 99% of votes counted.
Moldovan media said many of the votes yet to be counted had been cast abroad and would likely lean towards Yes, as the Moldovan diaspora is broadly in favor of closer ties with the EU.
The knife-edge nature of the vote has come as a shock to many. The referendum had been widely expected to comfortably pass in the country of 2.6 million.
Maia Sandu, the incumbent pro-EU president, earlier denounced the narrow result as the product of foreign interference in Moldovan politics.
She said it was an “unprecedented assault on democracy”, referring to widespread allegations that Russia paid people to vote a certain way, which Moscow denies.
As well as the referendum on changing the constitution, Moldovans also voted in the country’s presidential election on Sunday.
The votes were seen as key tests for the country, which is facing a choice between pushing on with EU membership or keeping close ties to Russia.
Sandu topped the election first round but by a much lower margin than expected – 41% of the vote versus her closest opponent’s 26% – and so will now face a difficult second round in early November in which her opponents will likely unite against her.
