Incumbent Basescu, Opposition Leader Geoana Face Run-off Vote for Romanian President – Final Results

Basescu, running for re-election, won 32.44% of the votes cast on Sunday, short of the majority of over 50% needed for an outright victory. Geoana trailed close second with 31.15% support based on all votes counted, the Central Electoral Bureau, BEC, said on its website.

The leader of the National Liberal Party, Crin Antonescu, came third with 20.02%, followed by Corneliu Vadim Tudor, the leader of nationalistic PRM party, with 5.56%. Romanians were choosing among 12 candidates for president. 

Voter turnout was 54.37%. Some 18.3 million voters were eligible to cast ballots.

The winner in the run-off, to be held on December 6, will name the country's next prime minister who will have to restart key reforms of the economy and the justice system in order to win back the trust of international lenders, a key condition for the release of the next installments of a 20-billion euro bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Earlier on Wednesday, Geoana said he would get the support of PNL in the second round of the elections. Both parties, PSD and PNL, are to sign a political agreement including a governing programme for Romania. Basescu has announced he will seek no political alliance before the vote.

Local news agency Mediafax has reported that PSD, PNL and the Hungarian minority party UDMR concluded on Tuesday a political cooperation agreement to support Geoana in the presidential runoff. The three opposition parties back Klaus Johannis, mayor of the town of Sibiu, as prime minister.

On Sunday Romanians also voted in 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.

Some 77.78% of the voters in the referendum, the results of which are not binding, backed the transformation, and 88.84% supported the proposed cut in the number of MPs, according to final results released by BEC. Turnout in the referendum was 50.95%.