BUCHAREST -- Moldova's incumbent President 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 the former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity, got 55.33 percent of the vote, while her rival, former Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo received 44.67 percent, with all the ballots counted, the CEC said.

Moldova held the first round of the presidential election on Oct. 20. As none of the 11 candidates competing in the presidential race received an absolute majority of the votes — 50 percent plus one vote — during the first round, Sunday's runoff took place between the top two candidates.

On Sunday, more than 2,200 polling stations were open to an estimated 2.7 million eligible voters, including 231 stations abroad.

Addressing her supporters, Sandu celebrated the democratic process, thanking voters both at home and abroad. "You have provided a lesson in democracy worthy of history textbooks. Nobody lost today. Freedom and truth won," she said after the preliminary official results confirmed her win.

Stoianoglo, supported by Moldova's Socialist Party, acknowledged the results with a call for calm and respect for the democratic process. "Democracy means, first of all, maturity in front of the result," he said.

Sandu, 52, was Moldova's education minister from 2012 to 2015 and prime minister from January to November 2019.

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

She won the Moldovan presidential elections in 2020, defeating then-President Igor Dodon.