BUCHAREST — Romania’s center-left Social Democrats are on track to win the most seats in Sunday’s parliamentary election, according to an exit poll, but the success of far-right parties also seemed to confirm a trend seen in the first-round of the presidential election last week.
Official results are expected to trickle in through the night and they could ultimately differ dramatically from what exit polls predict, as happened during the presidential election last Sunday.
The Social Democratic Party (PSD) of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu won 26 percent of the votes in Sunday’s parliamentary’s race, while the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) came in second, with 19 percent of the votes, results from the CURS polling agency showed.
The parliamentary election comes amid a tense political crisis caused by the unexpected victory of an ultranationalist, Russia-admiring independent candidate for president, Călin Georgescu, last Sunday.
In a potential signal of how the second round could go, the far-right momentum that boosted Georgescu appeared to continue in the parliamentary vote. In addition to AUR, two other far-right parties, S.O.S. Romania and the Party of Young People each got 5.5 percent, just above the threshold to obtain seats, according to the exit poll.
Reformist Union Save Romania (USR) and center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) are each expected to receive 15.5 percent of the votes.
USR is the party of Elena Lasconi, the liberal leader currently set to face off against Georgescu in the race for the presidency on Dec. 8.
To govern, the PSD will have to form a coalition, which could potentially include its current governing partner, PNL.
The three far-right parties would not be able to form a majority coalition, according to the current results.
Just over half of Romania’s eligible voters — about 52 percent — voted on Sunday’s parliamentary election.
The Constitutional Court ordered a ballot recount for the first round of the presidnetial election following a fraud allegation from one of the 13 candidates, European Parliamentarian Cristian Terheș, who obtained about 1 percent of the vote.
The court will hold a meeting on Monday to decide whether to annul the first round of the presidential election.
An annulment risk pouring fuel on the ongoing political blaze, with fears rising that the traditional ruling parties — the PSD and PNL — are seeking to manipulate the vote.
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