Romania Presidential Vote Heads to Runoff (Another Rigged Election?)

[Khephra]

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Exit polls showed no clear winner in Romania's presidential election Sunday, forcing a runoff next month between a former ship's captain with a populist message and a political veteran embodying the communist past.

The polls also showed that no party won a majority in the parliamentary election that would enable it to form a government by itself.

snip..........

The polls showed Nastase leading for the presidency with up to 43 percent of the vote, while Basescu was in second place with 35 percent. About 18 million people were eligible to vote, and turnout was expected to be 57 percent.

If the exit polls hold up, a runoff will be needed Dec. 12 since neither candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-romania-elections,0,4844492.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

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SOME BACKGROUND FOR THIS ELECTION:

Romania party transcripts cause outrage

By ALISON MUTLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Documents purported to be transcripts of top-level ruling party meetings with ministers discussing intimidating opposition leaders and rigging votes in the Senate have surfaced ahead of Romania's Sunday elections.

Prime Minister Adrian Nastase has called the transcripts fakes, but they have become an unexpected campaign issue ahead of the fiercely contested elections.

It was not immediately clear whether the hundreds of pages of documents were legitimate. Two senior party members, and the former secretary general of the party said sections of the purported transcripts were accurate.

The documents, which allegedly record party meetings from the past 18 months, first appeared in Romanian newspapers on Tuesday. They depict senior Social Democratic Party members allegedly talking about instructing prosecutors to investigate opposition leaders.

The officials also allegedly propose tightening control over television and print outlets, and suspicious about civic groups which promote views that oppose those of the government.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Romania%20Political%20Secrets