Exit polls ranked the PSD (Social Democrat Party)-PUR (Romanian Humanist Party) Union and Adrian Nastase first in the parliamentary and presidential elections yesterday. The polls, conducted by INSOMAR and Metro Media, said the PSD-PUR Union was leading the race by six percent, whereas Adrian Nastase was nine percent ahead of his main competitor.
In the CURS poll, the hierarchy is the same, but the gap is much smaller. This poll indicates only three percent between the PSD-PUR Union and the DA (PNL-PD) Alliance, whereas Adrian Nastase and Traian Basescu are separated by six percent, in line with the same exit poll.
According to the same sources, four parties will make it to Parliament - the PSD-PUR Union, the PNL (National Liberal Party) -PD (Democrat Party) Alliance, PRM (Greater Romania Party) and UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania). Exit polls credited UDMR with more than five percent of votes - the level needed to get into Parliament.
The presidential race is not over yet, and the name of the next Romanian president will only be known in two weeks' time, after the second round of elections. According to exit polls, Adrian Nastase, followed by Traian Basescu, will go into the second round.
The result announced by the polls was processed in line with the data collected by the institutes by 18.00hrs, three hours before the closing of the voting sections. At 21.00hrs, in several cities, among which Bucharest, people were still standing in line at the voting sections.
Adrian Nastase and Mircea Geoana, the representatives of PSD-PUR, deemed the results as a cause for celebration, but urged for cautious joy, until the final vote counting. "Let's wait for the final count of the votes. Let's rejoice cautiously," Adrian Nastase said. Mircea Geoana shared his feelings, saying, "We are rejoicing with caution and expecting confirmation for the rest of the results." The official results need to be validated by the Central Electoral Bureau.
In their turn, the leaders of the PNL-PD Alliance, Traian Basescu and Calin Popescu Tariceanu said last night's results were just estimates and that no one could point to the final winner of the parliamentary elections, yet. "The estimates show a three-percent difference, which falls into the error margin," said Traian Basescu, who added everybody should wait for the official results. Also, he said errors may occur upon data collecting and processing by the polling institutes for the exit polls. He said he was hoping the official vote counting would overturn the hierarchy. The PNL-PD Alliance leaders spoke only of the CURS poll.
Traian Basescu said no party had earned absolute majority (51%), "which means that no one is entitled to lead Romania. The battle for Romania is to be waged in the second round" of presidential elections.
The Alliance leader thus alluded to interpretation of the new text of the Constitution. In art. 103, on appointing a prime minister and forming the government, the text says that the President of Romania appoints a candidate for the position of premier, after consulting with the party that has absolute majority in Parliament.
However, PSD does not seem concerned with this interpretation, as Adrian Nastase said PSD was the first Eastern European party to have won the elections after a difficult governing period.
adelina.radulescu@zf.ro
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