Romania Presidency Claimed by Geoana and Basescu
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Romanian opposition leader MirceaGeoana claimed victory over President Traian Basescu yesterdayand pledged to form a Cabinet within two weeks. Basescu refusedto concede and said the polls were too close to call.
Three of four exit polls showed Social Democratic PartyChairman Geoana with a lead of between 0.4 percentage point and3.2 points while one showed a tie. An exit survey released bypollster INSOMAR as polling stations closed showed Geoana with51.6 percent of the vote and Basescu with 48.4 percent. Turnoutas of 7 p.m. was 54 percent. First official results will bereleased today at 8 a.m., while a final count may take days.
“We will have a government by Christmas,” Geoana, 51,said in a speech after polls closed. “We have to get back tobusiness to take care of the country’s economic problems.”Basescu told supporters he refused to concede and said the votewas too close for Geoana to claim victory.
Geoana, whose party was formed by ex-communist officialsafter the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, may have topick a new prime minister to replace Emil Boc, whose Cabinetcollapsed in October. The European Union’s second-poorest nationhas been unable to pass a 2010 budget, repair ties with theInternational Monetary Fund, overhaul taxes and regain economicgrowth after a 7.1 percent contraction in the third quarter.
Tight Race
“I ask my voters to stay calm until the votes arecounted,” Geoana said.
He has promised to push through Parliament a government ledby his premier nominee, Klaus Johannis, 50, the independentmayor of the city of Sibiu, with the help of other parties.Basescu failed twice to push through a replacement for Boc, whoremains as caretaker premier with limited powers.
Basescu, a 58-year-old former tanker captain supported bythe Liberal Democratic Party, won the first round with 31percent, compared with 30 percent for Geoana. Crin Antonescu,leader of the National Liberal Party, took 20 percent and waseliminated from second-round voting.
Antonescu later threw his support behind Geoana, giving himthe edge and linking the Social Democrats, backed by pensionersand the country’s 1.3 million state workers, with the party thathas most campaigned on a platform of small government.
While Basescu’s Liberal Democratic Party is the largestparty in Parliament with 167 of the 471 seats, the SocialDemocrats have 158 and the Liberals 79. Together, they haveenough votes to approve Johannis as premier.
Markets React
The leu fell to a seven-month low and bonds plunged afterthe Oct. 13 government collapse. The currency has strengthenedabout 0.2 percent since then, while the yield on the benchmarkinternational sovereign debt due June 2018 is up 16 basis pointsat 6.367 percent, according to Bloomberg data.
After the government collapse, the IMF and other lenderssuspended a 20 billion-euro ($30 billion) bailout program thatthe country needs to protect its currency and offset its budgetand current-account deficits.
Geoana supports overhauling taxes, scrapping the 16 percentflat tax on income for a rate that rises with income, to narrowthe state budget deficit. The changes could affect the country’smajor earners, including exporter Dacia SA, owned by France’sRenault SA, and oil company Petrom SA, owned by Austria’s OMVAG.
He was also promised to fulfill other demands of theinternational lenders and to appoint some Cabinet ministers fromthe opposition parties that supported him in the second round ofelections.
To contact the reporter on this story:Adam Brown in Bucharest at abrown23@bloomberg.net;
Last Updated: December 6, 2009 17:45 ESTSource: Bloomberg
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