December 15 (SeeNews) - Romania's left-wing Social Democrat Party (PSD), which won the most votes in the December 11 general election but fell short of outright majority, will have 221 seats of a total of 465 in the two houses of parliament, final results from the Central Electoral Bureau BEC showed on Thursday.
PSD's election victory translates into 154 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (out of 329) and 67 in the Senate (out of 136), BEC data showed.
In order to have majority and have the right to choose the new prime-minister, PSD must make a coalition or attract 11 members from the other parties that entered parliament.
Shortly after the first exit polls came out, PSD's leader Liviu Dragnea said that the party will make an alliance with centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE), which won 29 seats in the new parliament.
If PSD and ALDE join forces in an alliance, they will control 250 seats in parliament, meaning that the two parties will choose the next prime minister to replace incumbent technocrat head of government Dacian Ciolos.
Under Romania's constitution, the president must name the prime minister from the political party, which has won the majority of seats in parliament in elections. Both the prime minister and his cabinet must be approved by the newly elected MPs in a vote of confidence. The MPs can reject a proposed government line-up up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
On Tuesday, PSD and ALDE refused to attend consultations with president Klaus Iohannis over the appointment of a prime minister until the new parliament convened and final results of the vote were announced.
Iohannis earlier suggested that he will not name the PSD leader as prime minister due to Liviu Dragnea's two-year suspended jail sentence for a referendum fraud in 2012. Iohannis strongly stated that he will take into account integrity criteria in the process of appointing Romania's new prime minister.
The moral criteria announced by the president are backed by a 2001 law which says that a person sentenced on charges of a criminal offense cannot be part of the government. The law could be challenged in the country's Constitutional Court but no moves in that direction have been made so far.
Under Romania's constitution, the president must name the prime minister from the political party, which has won the majority of seats in parliament in elections, or hold consultations with all parties represented in parliament, if no such majority was created. Both the prime minister and his cabinet must be approved by the newly elected MPs in a vote of confidence. MPs can reject a proposed government line-up up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
Initially, the new parliament should have had 466 seats but after legal challenges made by ethnic minorities others than the Hungarian one, the number of their representatives fell to 17 instead of 18.
A total of six political parties entered the new parliament.
Right-wing PNL will be the second biggest force in parliament with 69 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 30 seats in the Senate.
Centre-right Save Romania Union (USR) party came in third with 30 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 13 in the Senate.
The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) will have 21 seats in the lower house and 9 in the Senate.
ALDE won 20 seats for the Chamber of Deputies and 9 in the upper house, which makes it the fifth biggest party in the new parliament.
Centre-right Popular Movement Party (PMP) barely made it to parliament, with 18 seats in Chamber of Deputies and 8 in the Senate.