Romania divided and paralysed by president's disputed, wafer-thin win

ALLIES OF Romania’s defeated presidential election challenger Mircea Geoana have accused incumbent Traian Basescu of using fraud to secure a second term in power.

In a reversal of exit polls released after Sunday’s ballot, yesterday’s official results showed that Mr Basescu beat Social Democrat (PSD) leader Mr Geoana by less than 1 per cent of votes, in an election that failed to break the recession-hit nation’s paralysing political deadlock.

“Romanians voted for Mircea Geoana, but Basescu’s state apparatus is trying to make him the presidential winner through fraud,” said senior PSD member Liviu Dragnea.

“We contest the election. It is a democratic duty towards five million Romanians,” he added, in a reference to those who voted for Mr Geoana, a former foreign minister and ambassador to Washington.

Results giving Mr Basescu 50.4 per cent of ballots and Mr Geoana 49.6 percent suggested that only about 70,000 votes divided the candidates.

Mr Dragnea claimed that there was a suspiciously high number of voided ballot papers – some 138,000 – and alleged that Mr Basescu’s camp had organised “massive electoral tourism” by transporting people between polling stations to vote several times in different locations.

Mr Basescu, a former sea captain who has angered much of the Romanian elite with his abrasive manner and professed determination to crush corruption, did not immediately respond to the opposition claims.

Election observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe urged the authorities to investigate claims of fraud swiftly, but declared that the election was conducted “generally in line with OSCE commitments”.

When exit polls on Sunday night suggested that Mr Geoana had secured a wafer-thin win, Mr Basescu accused media moguls of seeking to rob him of victory, a claim that chimed with his depiction of the challenger as a man controlled by shadowy tycoons and former communists.

Mr Basescu’s victory appears to have only deepened Romania’s political crisis, however.

The PSD’s withdrawal from the ruling coalition in October left Mr Basescu’s allies to rule as a minority government, and the opposition has since refused to approve his nominees for prime minister.

The political impasse prompted the International Monetary Fund to suspend payment of a €20 billion loan, which is dependent on the government pushing through deeply unpopular cuts in state spending. Strikes and protests by worried workers are now common across the country.

“It isn’t surprising given how close the result is, but it will just prolong the instability,” said analyst Joanna Gorska.

“It will make it harder to push through necessary reforms and it is another stumbling block to getting the IMF deal back on track.”

In neighbouring Moldova, attempts to elect a new president collapsed in disarray yesterday after the communists walked out of parliament before a vote could be held.

The boycott left the reformist, pro-EU government eight votes short of the number needed to install its candidate as president and triggered a constitutional process which is expected to culminate in a general election next year.