BUCHAREST: Romanians voted on Sunday in a presidential ballot expected to replace anti-graft campaigner Traian Basescu with a leftist who says he will end a political crisis that has put an IMF-led rescue package at risk.
With an eight-point lead in opinion polls, challenger Mircea Geoana has won support from many voters frustrated by clashes in Parliament over Basescu’s drive to root out corrupt politicians.
Analysts see the vote as one of Romania’s most important since the fall of communism, as the new president must steer long-delayed reforms prescribed by the International Monetary Fund to unlock a stalled 20 billion euro aid package.
He must also name a new prime minister after opposition parties toppled a Basescu-allied cabinet in October.
Basescu, 58, has said the IMF requirements, including up to 150,000 public job cuts, are key for the EU newcomer to claw back from an expected 8 percent economic contraction this year.
He has also said Geoana’s socialist PSD party will turn a blind eye to the graft which has plagued Romanians since they overthrew one of the Soviet era’s most repressive regimes and executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu 20 years ago this month.
But many in the nation of 22 million are tired of Basescu’s confrontational style, which has contributed to the fall of two governments during his five years power.
