ROMANIA: Romanians chose experience over new blood yesterday, when the ruling former communists and their candidate for president came out on top in fiercely fought elections. Daniel McLaughlin reports from Bucharest.
The Social Democrats (PSD) took around 40 per cent of votes according to exit polls, ahead of the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA) with about 35 per cent, to consolidate its grip on Romania as it implements tough reforms before joining the European Union in 2007.
Current Prime Minister Mr Adrian Nastase, the PSD candidate to succeed long-time president Mr Ion Iliescu, also triumphed over his DA rival, Mr Traian Basescu, but faces a second round of voting in a fortnight after failing to clinch an overall majority. Exit polls showed Mr Nastase taking about 44 per cent against 35 per cent for Mr Basescu.
While preparing for the December 12th run-off, Mr Nastase said he would get down to forming a coalition government as soon as final results were in.
"It looks like our victory. These results show that after four years, Romanians continue to have faith in us," he said last night. "As soon as possible, we will begin negotiations to form a new government."
A key role in forming the new cabinet and deciding the next president may fall to flamboyant nationalist Mr Corneliu Vadim Tudor, whose 12 per cent showing in the presidential race matched the return of his Greater Romania Party in the general election.
The main party representing Romania's 1.4 million Hungarians could also lend the necessary support to the PSD, after becoming the only other bloc to gain the 5 per cent minimum required to enter parliament.
Mr Nastase and the PSD benefited from the backing of Mr Iliescu - Romania's dominant political figure since it executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu - and the Orthodox Church, in the poor, conservative provinces where change is regarded with suspicion.
"I am confident that these elections, which come 15 years after the revolution of December 1989 and at a time when Romania is preparing to join the European Union, will consolidate the progress we have made in recent years," Mr Iliescu said after voting.
Even after stepping down as president, he is expected to remain the power behind the PSD and his likely successor Mr Nastase, who came under heavy fire in the election campaign for allegedly encouraging rampant cronyism and corruption.
Mr Basescu said he believed he could still take the presidency. "This is a unique day, when Romanians take power into their own hands," said Mr Basescu, a former ship's captain and now mayor of the capital, Bucharest. "The Alliance will take Romania out of the hands of the Mafia." His challenge for the presidency was bolstered days before voting by the publication in a leading newspaper of alleged transcripts from government meetings, which showed ministers trying to control the media, law courts and prosecution service.
Mr Nastase dismissed the documents as forgeries, and urged Romanians to back his familiar team rather than risk untried leadership just ahead of EU entry.
"The PSD have experience and know what they are doing," said Mr Cosmin Nescu (71) at a Bucharest polling station.
"Things might not be perfect but why give someone else the job when they won't be any better and could be worse?" He also reiterated a common conviction that Mr Basescu, for all his straight-talking charm and untainted reputation, lacked the gloss required to represent Romania on the world stage as a NATO, and soon-to-be-EU, member.
Others among Romania's 22 million people, especially the young and the growing urban middle class, had hoped Mr Basescu's reformers in the DA would finally clear out the old communist-era politicians and bureaucrats that still dominate the PSD.
"I don't think we can get rid of corruption in Romania unless we oust the PSD," said architect Mr Vasile Burdujan (58), after casting his ballot in the capital.
Mr Basescu, unbowed by the exit polls, demanded an investigation into alleged voting irregularities and vowed to fight to the end. He said the "battle for Romania" would be decided in the second round of the presidential poll.