BUCHAREST, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Moldova's former prime minister Maia Sandu emerged as the winner of Sunday's presidential runoff, according to preliminary results released by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) on Monday.

Sandu, also leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity, got over 57 percent of the vote, while her rival, incumbent President Igor Dodon received less than 42 percent, with all the ballots counted, showed the CEC data.

They are the top two competing in the presidential runoff, which was held two weeks after the first round of the elections, as none of the eight candidates emerged from the presidential race with an absolute majority of the votes as required by the legal provisions.

This is the second duel between the two. Dodon defeated Sandu in the second round of voting in November 2016 and won his first presidential mandate.

During the campaign, Sandu emphasized fighting corruption at home, embracing the European Union (EU) in foreign policy, while maintaining traditional relations with Russia, and seeking more funds from the EU to develop the country's economy.

After casting his vote on Sunday, Dodon declared that he voted "for the independence and statehood of the Republic of Moldova, for the strengthening of its statehood."

Dodon said he voted for balance in foreign relations, for friendship with the EU and the Russian Federation, for friendship with its neighbors Romania and Ukraine.

"I voted for improvements as we need high-quality changes, not shocks and crises," the incumbent president noted.

Just like in the first round of voting, Sandu's support mainly came from overseas voters, as the official data of the CEC showed that 234,605 of the 252,394 votes she surpassed her opponent with came from overseas.

Sandu, 48, worked for the World Bank for two years after graduating from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2010.

She was Moldova's education minister from 2012 to 2015 and prime minister from June to November 2019.

She launched a political platform that later became the Party of Action and Solidarity at the end of 2015, after leaving the office as education minister. Enditem

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