Bucharest - Incumbent Romanian President Traian Basescu and his Socialist rival Mircea Geoana are to compete in a presidential run-off on December 6, following polls in which no candidate won an absolute majority. The ethnic German mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Johannis, could turn out to be the joker in the contest, although he is not a candidate, analysts said a day after Sunday's vote.
With 74.14 per cent of the vote counted Monday, official results showed a run-off was unavoidable. Basescu was leading, with 32.84 per cent of the vote, in his bid for a second term, while Geoana came in second with 29.82 per cent, according to the Central Election Bureau in Bucharest.
One of the defeated candidates in the presidential race, National Liberal Party (PNL) chairman Crin Antonescu, said he would back Geoana in the run-off if Geoana supported Johannis for the post of prime minister.
Basescu has refused to nominate Johannis for the premiership, despite the fact that the country has been politically deadlocked since the collapse last month of an uneasy "grand coalition" government of the centre-left Social Democrats (PSD) and the centre- right Democrat-Liberals (PD-L) under Prime Minister Emil Boc (PD-L).
The Social Democrats and National Liberals agreed Johannis as a successor to Boc, but the president, a close ally of Boc, nominated two other candidates instead.
If Basescu wins re-election, the stalemate is likely to continue, leading to early parliamentary elections and a further delay in International Monetary Fund support for the nation's cash-strapped economy, according to analysts.
Sunday's election was held alongside a referendum on Basescu's initiative of downsizing the 471-member parliament from a bicameral to a unicameral body, which was backed by voters. Around 89 per cent of voters backed the initiative, according to results. Basescu called on Parliament to move swiftly in implementing the change.
Electoral authorities received hundreds of complaints of voter fraud, including voter-buying operations, within hours of polls opening Sunday.
The allegations came in from leading parties, as well as from media outlets and private citizens.
