Centrist President Traian Basescu will face a socialist former foreign minister in a Dec. 6 runoff presidential election, partial results showed yesterday, in a race key to helping Romania emerge from a political and economic crisis.
Basescu polled 32.8 percent of the vote, while Mircea Geoana scored 29.2 percent, election authorities said in first official results based on some 48 percent of the vote counted. Conservative opposition leader Crin Antonescu polled 20.8 percent, finishing third in a field of a dozen candidates.
Romania’s government collapsed last month amid squabbling between the two-party coalition, and the IMF has delayed access to a 1.5 billion euros (US$2 billion) bailout loan while the country struggles to set up a new government.
The president is key to reviving the government because he nominates a prime minister, whom parliament must then approve and who would be responsible for forming a new coalition.
Reports of possible fraud in Sunday’s election emerged as far more people than normal cast ballots at 3,500 special voting centers that were set up for Romanians who need to vote outside their area of residence because they are traveling. The Electoral Committee said more than 430,000 people voted at such locations, and witnesses claimed some were being bused there after already having cast ballots elsewhere.
Authorities said two people were arrested in the southern city of Giurgiu for trying to buy votes. There were widespread reports throughout the country about people being offered incentives — from sugar, oil or blankets, to flowers in exchange for votes.
Voters also took part in a referendum on Sunday asking if they want to reduce the number of lawmakers in parliament and abolish one of its two houses. Basescu, who called the referendum, wants a one-chamber parliament with a maximum of 300 lawmakers, down from the current 471. Critics say a smaller parliament would lead to the president having too much power. Partial results showed Romanians overwhelmingly voting to reduce the number of lawmakers and remove one chamber.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS