Final results: Basescu wins presidential elections. PSD challenges results

The general secretary of Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, said the social democrats will challenge the results alleging electoral fraud, which will thus undermine the legitimacy of Romania’s presidential vote.

The decision made public by Dragnea was made by the National Permanent Bureau (BPN) of the Social Democratic Party and is pending for the approval of the Executive Committee made up of county leaders of the party.

“We will complete the necessary proceedings of disputing the results of the elections. We will centralize all irregularities and frauds notified by our colleagues”, said Dragnea.

“It is a democratic duty, and an obligation we assume to the 5 million Romanian citizens who voted for Mircea Geoana and against Traian Basescu whose votes are about to be annulled as part of a broad attempt of electoral fraud”, Dragnea said.

Results with 95.4percent of ballots counted showed the difference between incumbent president Traian Basescu (50.43%) and Mircea Geoana (49.57%) was as narrow as 0.86%, Central Electoral Bureau said in a briefing at 8:00 EET.

The partial vote count showed that 10,229,433 Romanians with voting rights went to the polls, but only 10,095,983 ballots were valid.

5,091,432 Romanians voted for Traian Basescu, and 5,004,506 voted for his leftist challenger, Mircea Geoana.

As partial results show, 133,419 votes were annulled. 97.27% of the ballots at the polls from abroad were counted.

First-deputy president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Adrian Videanu said on Monday morning at 2:40 that after counting 99.56% of the ballots, that Traian Basescu leads with 50.14% defeating Mircea Geoana who received 49.86%.

According to polling institutes, the difference between the two candidates narrowed to 2.4% at 9:00pm, as three opinion polls showed Mircea Geoana winning with 51% while Traian Basescu was leading in CSOP-IRES poll.

The biggest difference between the two candidates, of 2.4% was shown by Insomar polling institute ordered by Realitatea TV that indicates Mircea Geoana as the winner with 51% votes and incumbent Traian Basescu with 49%.

CURS poll, ordered by the national television channel, TVR, Mircea Geoana’s lead narrowed to 1.4 percents, from 1.6%, Mircea Geoana being voted by 50.7% Romanians and Traian Basescu by 49.3%.

However, CSOP-IRES opinion poll, ordered by B1TV and Vox News showed Traian Basescu winning with 50.4% narrowly defeating Mircea Geoana with 49.6% votes.