Romania elections: Social democrats get most votes, set to appoint new PM

Newsroom 12/12/2016 | 07:20

The left wing party PSD won the general elections held on December 11 in Romania, according to the Central Election Bureau (BEC).

After the count of 99 percent of the votes, the PSD got 46.21 percent of the votes at the Chamber of Deputies and 46.40 percent at the Senate.

Second came the liberal party PNL, which got 20.26 percent at the Chamber of Deputies and 20.64 percent at the Senate.

PSD, in red, got almost all the votes in Romania

The Union to Save Romania, USR, the party founded by Nicusor Dan, got 8.78 percent of the votes at the Chamber of Deputies and 8.84 percent at the Senate.

It should be mentioned that the USR got most of the votes from the Romanians abroad.

The union of Hungarians in Romania UDMR will also have MPs after it got 6.37 percent of the votes.

ALDE, the party co-founded by Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the current head of the Senate, got 5.69 percent at the Chamber of Deputies and 6.12 percent at the Senate.

The party of ex-president Traian Basescu, PMP, also got into the new Parliament after getting 5.31 percent of the votes at the Chamber of Deputies and 5.60 percent at the Senate.

Negotiations for new government this week

Liviu Dragnea, the head of the PSD, said Sunday evening that the negotiations for the new government team will take place this week, and refused to state clearly if his party will propose him as the new PM.

Dragnea, who got a suspended jail sentence in an election fraud case and is on trial in a separate corruption case involving him former wife, should become PM, said the mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela Firea.

The new PM has to be voted by Parliament and the PSD has already negotiated with ALDE the new majority.

Read what are PSD’s plans for the economy

President Klaus Iohannis said recently that he would not designate a PM that has legal issues. Both the heads of PSD and ALDE are on trial in corruption cases. They were put on trial by the anti-graft institutions DNA, led by Laura Codruta Kovesi. The DNA has prosecuted several high profile politicians in the past four years, including former PM Victor Ponta, who ran for the Chamber of Deputies this Sunday. 

Some of the party leaders, including Tariceanu and Basescu, have warned that the anti-graft prosecutors were abusive at certain times. For instance, the Senate head said that he was investigated because the DNA was doing politics.

What happens with PM Dacian Ciolos next?

It is not clear what will happen with the current technocratic PM Dacian Ciolos, considering that the parties supporting him – PNL and USR – will have problems holding the majority in Parliament due to insufficient votes.

Ciolos was saying last week, during the political campaign, that he was thinking of becoming the new head of the PNL, which is currently led by Alina Gorghiu.

The turnout on Sunday’s elections was 39.49 percent. In Bucharest, this figure stood at 41.6 percent. More than 18 million Romanians were expected at the voting polls yesterday.  The turnout was higher in urban areas compared to the rural ones.

Ovidiu Posirca

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