Romania's Democratic-Liberal Party Takes Lead in Parliamentary Elections – Official Partial Results

The Social Democratic party, which runs on a joint ticket with the relatively small Conservative Party, has won 32.51% backing for the lower chamber and 33.36% backing for the Senate after 71.06% of the votes were counted, the Central Electoral Bureau, BEC, said.

According to the partial results, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu's National Liberal Party, PNL, lags behind the two frontrunners with 18.10% of the votes for the chamber of deputies and 18.18% of the votes for the Senate.

The Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) ranked fourth with 6.20% of the votes for the lower house and 6.44% of the votes for the Senate.

A party must win at least 5% of the total vote to enter parliament.

The Nationalistic PRM party got 3.27% of the votes for the lower house and 3.67% for the Senate, the partial results showed. The New Generation Party-Cristian Democrats (PNG-CD) won 2.38% of the votes for the lower house and 2.64% of the votes for Senate.

Voter turnout in Sunday’s election was 38.42%, according to the latest BEC data.

BEC said it would release more partial results at 1400, 1800 and 2000 local time on Monday.

It is a public and market holiday in Romania on Monday, as the country celebrates its National Day.