Monday, December 7, 2009

In very close Romanian presidential election, all eyes turn to diaspora votes

According to the Romanian Central Electoral Bureau, incumbent Traian Basescu is ahead of his Social Democratic rival Mircea Geoana by a slim 50.43 percent versus 49.57 percent, after more than 95 percent of the ballots have been counted.

Given the very close race, which may come down to just a few thousand votes, many have turned to looking at who Romanians living abroad picked.

A record high of nearly 150,000 Romanians in the diaspora voted, 12,000 of which reside in Moldova.

The last Romanian citizen voted on the West coast of the United States at 7 a.m. Bucharest time.

Generally speaking, Mr. Basescu is much more popular abroad than Mr. Geoana. He won 95 percent of the vote in Moldova and more than 85 percent in Ireland. He is expected to win by rather large margins in other parts of the world, as well.

The ballots that have been counted thus far do not include the totality of the vote abroad, which could bode well for Mr. Basescu. If he wins, the incumbent Romanian President may have very well been saved by the diaspora, given the fact that the Romanians inside the country split in virtually two equal parts in their support for the two contenders.

h/t www.bec.ro
www.hotnews.ro

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