Basescu Wins Romanian Presidential Election

13/12/2004

Opposition candidate Traian Basescu has won an upset victory in Romania's presidential runoff, defeating Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. Fresh parliamentary elections could be next.

By Razvan Amariei for Southeast European Times in Bucharest – 13/12/04

Opposition candidate Traian Basescu will be Romania's new president. [AFP]

Traian Basescu, of the centrist alliance between the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Party (PD), will be the new president of Romania. With nearly all the votes counted in Sunday's (12 December) runoff, Basescu leads opponent Adrian Nastase, by about 600,000 votes. He won 51.7 per cent of the vote, while Prime Minister Nastase -- representing an alliance between the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Humanistic Party (PUR), won 48.3 per cent.

On Monday, Nastase said he had conceded defeat in a phone call to Basescu, who he called "the future president of Romania".

Analysts credit heavy turnout in urban areas, where support for the opposition is strong, as tipping the balance. Exit polls Sunday night suggested a dead heat, prompting both candidates to claim victory. As the returns came in, however, Basescu supporters in Bucharest and elsewhere took to the streets to celebrate, waving the orange flags of the opposition alliance.

The winner succeeds three-term incumbent Ion Iliescu, a dominant figure in Romanian politics since the fall of communism, and will face the challenge of steering the country through wide-ranging reforms needed for EU membership. Romania is hoping to join the Union in 2007, together with neighbouring Bulgaria.

Nastase won the first round on 28 November, with about 41 per cent of the vote to Basescu's 34 per cent. Parliamentary elections held the same day resulted in a near-tie. PSD+PUR secured 57 seats in the Senate and 132 in the Chamber of Deputies, while Basescu's Justice and Truth Alliance (DA) will have 49 senators and 112 deputies. Other seats went to the nationalist Greater Romania Party and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians (UDMR). In addition, 18 organisations of the national minorities received one deputy each. PSD-PUR was obliged to seek smaller parties' support in forming a ruling coalition.

"The government that PSD+PUR negotiated with UDMR is in danger," political analyst Ion Cristoiu said in an interview with Antena 1 TV. Under the constitution, the president is free to designate a prime minister if there is no outright majority in parliament.

According to Robert Turcescu, editor-in-chief of the daily <I>Cotidianul</I>, the unstable political situation means fresh parliamentary elections are likely.

The interval between the first and second rounds of the presidential vote was anything but tranquil. Accusations of fraud clouded the initial outcome, with some NGOs and opposition parties charging that the ruling party bussed supporters to multiple polling places and otherwise manipulated the system.

Following the second round, election monitors announced they had received fewer reports of irregularities.