Moldova’s pro-western president, Maia Sandu, blamed an “unprecedented assault on our country’s freedom and democracy” by “foreign forces” on Sunday night, as a pivotal referendum on EU membership remained too close to call with most votes counted, writes The Guardian.

Moldovans went to the polls earlier in the day to cast their vote in a presidential election and an EU referendum that marked a key moment in the tug-of-war between Russia and the west over the future of the small, landlocked south-east European country with a population of about 2.5 million people.

At 3am GMT on Monday, with 97.66% of the vote counted, 50% of Moldovans voted “yes”, according to results given on Moldova’s electoral commission website. But the results could yet change as votes are still being counted among the large Moldovan diaspora, which is favourable to joining the EU.

The separate presidential election results showed that incumbent president Sandu topped the first round of the vote with about 38%, but she will now face her closest competitor, Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor backed by the pro-Russian Socialists, in the second round.

The double vote in one of Europe’s poorest countries was seen as a crucial test of Sandu’s pro-European agenda, as she had urged Moldovans to vote “yes” in the referendum to affirm EU accession as an “irreversible” constitutional goal.

The narrow results will disappoint Sandu’s supporters and her allies in Brussels. Pre-election surveys indicated that Sandu held a comfortable lead over her main rival, Stoianoglo, and other candidates, while polls suggested that about 60% of voters supported the pro-EU path in the run-up to the referendum.

“Moldova has faced an unprecedented assault on our country’s freedom and democracy, both today and in recent months,” Sandu told supporters in the capital, Chișinău, on Sunday as votes were being counted, adding that “criminal groups” had tried to “undermine a democratic process”.

“We are waiting for the final results, and we will respond with firm decisions,” she added.

The allegations against Moscow included funding pro-Kremlin opposition groups, spreading disinformation, meddling in local elections and backing a major vote-buying scheme. In particular, officials accused the fugitive pro-Russian businessman Ilan Shor, a vocal opponent of EU membership, of running a destabilising campaign from Moscow.