BUCHAREST (Romania), December 14 (SeeNews) – Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau said on Monday the recount of invalid votes in the country’s run-off presidential elections confirmed the victory of incumbent Traian Basescu.
Last week the Constitutional Court ordered the recount of the invalid votes in response to the demand of opposition Social Democrats who asked it to cancel the results of the run-off vote and order a rerun over alleged fraud.
Out of the 138,476 votes ranked as not valid in the run-off vote held on December 6, 2,247 ballots were declared as valid following the recount, including 1,260 in favour of Basescu versus 987 for Social Democrats' leader Mircea Geoana, a spokesman for BEC told a news conference.
But the recounting saga is far from over. The Social Democrats have said they would also demand the recount of the votes cast at special polling stations, including those of Romanian citizens that voted abroad or away from their place of permanent residence.
Final results issued by BEC gave Basescu 50.33% of the vote, while Geoana had 49.66%. The difference in the number of valid votes between the two contenders was 70,048.
Delays in Romania’s new president taking office will mean a continuation of the political crisis in the country that has prevented the restarting of key reforms in the economy and justice system. Carrying out these reforms is the main condition for the release of the next installments of a 20-billion euro aid package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).