BUCHAREST (Romania), December 8 (SeeNews) – Romanian opposition Social Democrats have asked the Constitutional Court to cancel the results of the presidential run-off vote held on Sunday and to repeat the elections over alleged fraud, private TV broadcaster Realitatea reported on Tuesday.
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 bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Final results issued by the Central Electoral Bureau, BEC, indicated that incumbent Traian Basescu has won 50.33% of the vote, while the PSD leader Mircea Geoana has come close second with 49.66% support. On Sunday evening, however, most local polling agencies gave Geoana a lead of 1.4-2.4 percentage points ahead of Basescu based on exit polls.
"We want the run-off vote to be cancelled and to be repeated [...] There’s a pile of evidence [...]," Realitatea quoted PSD’s general secretary Liviu Dragnea as saying.
"There are all possible types of fraud that these people have invented," he added.
On Monday Geoana said his party would dispute the results of the run-off presidential vote.
By law, the presidential vote results can be annulled if the fraud is so big that it can actually turn the results around in favour of the losing candidate, Realitatea reported.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said also on Monday that "reports of irregularities should be investigated without delay, and in order to increase transparency and confidence in the integrity of the process, the authorities should publish results by polling station as a matter or urgency."
Basescu came first in the first round on November 22, winning one third of the votes, slightly ahead of Geoana. After the first round Geoana got the support of the Liberal Party and the Hungarian minority party UDMR, while Basescu announced he would seek no political alliance before the run-off vote. The Liberals, Social Democrats and ethnic Hungarians together control two-thirds of the 471 seats in parliament and oppose the PD-L.