BUCHAREST (Romania), November 20 (SeeNews) – Romania hold presidential elections on Sunday, in which incumbent head of state Traian Basescu is expected to be pitted in a neck-to-neck race against Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana and a run-off vote is likely next month, polls indicate.
Basescu, the informal leader of ruling Democratic-Liberal Party, PD-L, and Geoana are expected to win 32% of the vote each in the first round, according to recent a survey conducted by local INSOMAR polling agency. Crin Antonescu of opposition National Liberal Party, PNL, ranked third in the survey with 19% support.
Twelve candidates will vie for the president's seat in the first round.
Romania's president must abandon any political affiliation upon taking the oath of office and has fewer executive functions than the prime minister. The president is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, appoints ambassadors and the heads of security agencies.
The next president will have to name a new prime minister-designate, probably by the end of the year, or call early elections.
In mid-October the government of PD-L’s leader Emil Boc fell in a no-confidence vote over the implementation of harsh public sector reforms requested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a 20 billion euro stand-by agreement Romania signed with the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank in early 2009. Boc's cabinet has carried on as an interim government since.
Basescu is banned by the constitution to call early elections in the last six month of his term. Parliament rejected his first nomination for premier designate, Lucian Croitoru. His second nomination for prime-minister designate is now before parliament.
Following are some key facts about the elections:
- A candidate must win more than 50% of the valid votes in the first round to win.
- If none of the contenders wins more than half of the valid votes in the first round, a run-off vote will be held between the two front-runners on December 6, regardless of the turnout.
- Polling stations open at 7:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Sunday and close at 21:00 p.m. (1900 GMT).
- Campaigning is banned on the election day and the day before.
- Preliminary results will be available 90 minutes after polling stations close. Final results should be announced by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) within 48 hours after polls close.
- A total of 18.3 million Romanian citizens aged 18 and over are eligible to vote.
- Basescu’s first five-year term of office expires on December 19, 2009.
- The Romanian president is limited to two successive terms of office.
- On Sunday Romania also holds a referendum on Basescu's proposal to transform the bicameral parliament into a single chamber and cut the number of legislators to 300 from current 471.