BUCHAREST: Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta looked set to win the first round of a presidential election yesterday, despite fears he could reverse reforms aimed at tackling the rampant corruption that blights one of Europe’s poorest countries.
The vote is seen as a crucial test for the former communist country at a time when democracy has suffered setbacks in some neighbouring states such as Hungary, and as the Ukraine crisis has shaken relations between the European Union and Russia.
Romania’s election campaign has been marred by scandal, with numerous corruption probes including some aimed at allies of the prime minister, and a settling of scores between Ponta and his long-standing rival President Traian Basescu.
The popular centre-right Basescu, who has accused Ponta of being a former spy, is ineligible to run for a third term.
Ponta, a social democrat, has been premier for two stormy years of cohabitation with Basescu, and is likely to face 55-year-old liberal Klaus Iohannis, from the German-speaking minority, in a November 16 runoff.
“I am confident that 25 years after (the fall of the communist regime) we can complete Romania’s transition so that it becomes a truly democratic and European country,” Ponta said after casting his ballot in Bucharest.
He leads the latest exit polls with around 40 percent, ahead of Iohannis on 30 percent and another 12 candidates. Polling ended at 1900 GMT.
“I voted for a Romania of good work,” said Iohannis, echoing his campaign slogan.
AFP
