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.
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