Which two presidential candidates will run in round two?

A second round of elections, to involve the two candidates with the most votes, is scheduled for 6 December, provided no candidate obtained half plus one votes yesterday. By the close of this edition, the leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Crin Antonescu, had obtained 23-25 percent of the votes of Romanians. By 4 p.m. 36.19 percent of the country’s population had voted.

At President Băsescu’s proposal, a referendum was held concomitantly yesterday, and people were asked to vote on a unicameral Parliament (replacing the current bicameral one) and on the reduction in the number of lawmakers to a maximum 300 from 471.

The referendum for a unicameral parliament brought 33.86 percent of Romania’s population to the voting centres by 4 p.m., but it takes 50 percent plus one of the total number of voters to validate the proposal. Election day was marred by numerous incidents of possible frauds, with 1,310 calls to the 112 emergency number received at the national level by 5 p.m.. The polls opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 9 p.m., when the first exit poll results were available.

“This is a show of exceptional power which Romanians can exercise. I am convinced they will demonstrate their sovereignty in their best interest. Romanians have the power both to tell the Parliament how to function and to elect their President,” said Băsescu, quoted by the NewsIn agency.

Geoană said that he voted for the referendum and for a president who would “resolve the real problems: the battle against the crisis, jobs, and the relaunching of Romania’s agriculture and industry.” Antonescu indicated that his vote was in favour of “a real and profound change, another way of doing politics, another way of living in Romanian society, another Romania.”

The stake is particularly high, as the new President will hopefully designate a Prime Minister who will obtain the Parliament’s vote of confidence.

The country has been in the midst of a political crisis since 13 October, when the government headed by Prime Minister Emil Boc suffered a no-confidence vote.

Băsescu then designated two Prime Ministers, Lucian Croitoru, Advisor to the Governor of Romania’s central bank, who failed to win Parliamentary support, and the other, Liviu Negoiţă, Mayor of Bucharest’s Sector 3, who has not yet faced Parliament.