Opposition Wins Romanian Parliamentary ElectionThe largest opposition party, the Party of Social Democracy of Romania, emerged victorious in Sunday's parliamentary elections, and its leader has qualified for a presidential run-off, according to official results released on Thursday, November 30.The results showed that the party seized 37.09 percent of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies and 36.61 percent for the Senate. The Greater Romania Party ranked second among more than 60 running parties, with 21.01 percent and 19.48 percent of votes respectively for the two houses of parliament. The Christian Democratic National Peasant Party, the major party of the ruling coalition, however, turned out to be a big loser as it failed to obtain enough votes for parliament. Five parties including the Party of Social Democracy of Romania and the Greater Romania Party have gained enough votes for seats in the new parliament, the official results show. The other three parties are the Democratic Party, the National Liberty Party and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania. Meanwhile, in the presidential election held on the same day, Ion Iliescu of the Party of Social Democracy of Romania led his 11 rival candidates with 36.35 percent of the vote. He was followed by leader of the Greater Romania Party Corneliu Vadim Tudor, who gained 28.34 percent. Since no one gained more than 50 percent of the vote needed for an outright victory, Iliescu and Tudor will enter a run-off scheduled for December 10. |
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