Romania’s Basescu And Geoana Go To Runoff On Dec 6 – Exit Polls

An INSOMAR poll showed Basescu leading with 32.8% of the votes, followed by with Geoana with % of the votes. Another exit poll, by polling institute CCSB shows Basescu leading with 34.1% of the votes and Geoana following with 30.9%.

Liberal candidate Crin Antonescu came in third with 21.8% of the votes according to Insomar and 22.1% according to CCSB.

INSOMAR places far-rightist Corneliu Vadim Tudor fourth with 4%, followed by Kelemen Hunor of the Hungarian minority party with 3.6%, and independent Bucharest general mayor Sorin Oprescu with 3.5%.

Steaua owner Gigi Becali is credited by INSOMAR with 1.7% of the votes, while the rest of the dozen candidates each got less than 0.5%.

CCSB credits Vadim Tudor and Kelemen with 3.6% of the votes each, Oprescu with 3.4% and Becali with 1.4%, while the rest got less than 0.4%.

Authorities were notified of hundreds of electoral incidents throughout the day, ranging from the purchase of votes to the wrongful introduction of ballots in the urns and representatives of the main contending political parties accused one another of trying to rig the vote. Police spokesman Christian Ciocan said several people were fined and others had criminal records open.

Whoever emerges as the country's new president after the December 6 vote will have to appoint a Parliament-endorsed prime minister to carry through reforms conditioning the east European country's IMF-led EUR20 billion rescue loan.

Romania has been in a political gridlock since mid-October, when its democrat liberal government was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament, a first in the 20 years of democracy after the fall of the communist regime. The Parliament has since rejected one proposed government headed by economist Lucian Croitoru and lawmakers have refused to vote on Basescu's second prime minister nomination, democrat liberal Liviu Negoita.

Because it doesn't have a proper government, the country, which relies on the rescue package overseen by the IMF, will not see further disbursements of the loan until it adopts next year's state budget.

If the Parliament fails to install a government, the new president will have the power to dissolve the legislature and call for early elections, but that could mean depriving the country of a government until March or April.

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