Moldovaэs Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld the results of a referendum on European integration.

The referendum, held on October 20, the same day as a presidential election, asked voters: “Do you support the constitutional amendment aimed at Moldova’s accession to the EU?”

The turnout in the referendum was 50.72%, the Central Election Commission said. Ballots were received by 1,532,264 voters, 1,531,392 of these took part in the vote. There were 1,488,874 valid ballots. Of these, 749,719 voters (50.35%) voted for the amendment and 739,155 (49.65%) voted against it.

In upholding the results of the referendum, the Constitutional Court noted that for the referendum to be deemed valid, at least one-third of voters should have taken part, a majority of whom would have said yes to the question about constitutional changes.

Thus, several amendments will be made to the Constitution, including one to its preamble, which would proclaim that, “European integration is a strategic goal of the Republic of Moldova”.