SETimes.comRomanian presidential elections head to runoff
23/11/2009
Locals hit the polls in big numbers Sunday for the first round of voting.
By Paul Ciocoiu for Southeast European Times in Bucharest -- 23/11/09
Former political partners Traian Basescu and Mircea Geoana will confront each other in two weeks in one of the tightest runoffs in post-communist presidential election history.
According to partial results published by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) Monday (November 23rd), after counting half the ballots, Basescu won 32.8% of the vote in the first round of the elections Sunday, while Geoana took 29.7%. Liberal Crin Antonescu came in third with 20.8%
Turnout was 53.4% -- one of the highest rates in years.
Romanians also voted in a controversial referendum called by Basescu for a unicameral parliament, and the reduction of MPs from 471 to 300. According to a Centre for Urban and Regional Sociology (CURS) exit poll, 87.4% voted in favour of reducing the number of lawmakers, while 77.4% backed a single-chamber parliament.
Basescu hailed that margin as "extraordinary".
"I'm thus asking the parliament, after the validation of the referendum, to convene the constitution revision commission," said Basescu.
According to experts, the success may prove a crucial electoral advantage for Basescu in the second round.
But Geoana seems just as confident. "We have worked hard to get here. We will work harder and we will win together on December 6th," he said. The social-democrat leader promised a quick end to the political crisis, should he become president.
"As president, I will bring to the country's helm, by Christmas, a team of the most honest and competent people, from within and outside the parliamentary majority," he said.
The establishment of a stable government is a key condition for Romania to get the last disbursements of a 20 billion-euro loan agreement with the IMF.
The elections were heavily supervised, after suspicions of fraud were raised on the campaign trail.
Police patrols stopped buses and coaches to prevent what they call "electoral tourism", people being transported from one locality to another for multiple voting.
Sunday's presidential poll was the first in Romania since the country joined the EU in 2007, and the sixth since the fall of communism in 1989.