Moldovans voted Sunday on whether to elect the country's president by popular vote, but it was unclear whether the turnout was high enough to make the referendum valid.

The Central Election Commission said the turnout stood at just under 29.7 per cent, short of the one-third of Moldova's 2.66 million votes required.

Commission secretary lurie Ciocan said final figures were still to come from a part of Moldova in the breakaway territory of Transdniestria and from Moldovans working in other countries, Reuters reported.

About 600,000 Moldovans work abroad. Results were yet to be counted from 75 polling stations in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Russia, the commission said. The final tally is expected Monday.

Adding to the confusion, election officials earlier gave a higher turnout figure before revising it without explanation, The Associated Press reported. The country was also using a new electronic voting system for the first time.

Polls taken prior to the referendum suggested that a majority of people favour the proposal by the pro-European ruling alliance to abandon the current system, under which parliament elects the president with a three-fifths majority.

Parliament has failed twice to election a new president, producing a political deadlock. If the referendum isn't valid, parliament will be dissolved.

Voters were asked whether they agree that the constitution should be changed to allow election by popular vote.

But the Communist Party, which ruled the former Soviet republic for eight years until 2009, appealed to Moldovans to boycott the referendum, which it called "undemocratic."

The Communists favour the current system, where a candidate needs the votes of 61 of the parliament's 101 members to win. The alliance has 53 seats with the remaining 48 belonging to the Communist Party.

With files from The Associated Press