THE left wing challenger, Mr Petru Lucinschi, had a slim lead over President Mircea Snegur of Moldova in partial counting early today following the former Soviet republic's first presidential election run off.
After a bitter campaign that pitted the president against the government and culminated with Mr Lucinschi, the chairman of parliament, accusing Mr Snegur of plotting to rig yesterday's vote, the challenger led by one point with 55 per cent of the vote in.
Pro Snegur students gathered in front of the electoral commission in the centre of the capital, Chisinau, vowing to protest if the president lost. But they numbered only about loo and armed police said they expected no trouble.
Electoral officials said Mr Lucinschi had 50.5 per cent of the vote to Mr Snegur's 49.5 per cent.
No figures were available for Chisinau, where Mr Lucinschi had been expected to do well among Moldova's mainly urban, one third Russian speaking minority, who are suspicious of Mr Snegur's calls for closer ties with the majority's ethnic kin in Romania.
Turnout an hour before polls closed was 68.5 per cent, already up on the 67 per cent first round total on November 17th.
Electoral officials noted no major violations of voting rules. Foreign observers from the Organisation for Security and Co operation in Europe (OSCE) had no reports of serious trouble.
An OSCE co ordinator said his observers had paid particular attention to polling stations close to the Russian speaking Dnestr region, which broke away in 1990 fearing Moldovans wanted to unite with Romania.