Romania's Iliescu Wins Presidential Run-off, Exit Polls Showleader of the Social Democracy Party Ion Iliescu got 69.9 percent of the vote in Sunday's run-off presidential election, defeating Corneliu Vadim Tudor, candidate of the Greater Romania Party, who received less than 30 percent, according to two exit polls released soon after polling.The polls were made the Imas polling firm. The final results from election authorities could be released as late as Tuesday. Over 15,000 voting stations in 42 districts across the country opened at 07:00 a.m. until 09:00 p.m. local time. By 08:00 p.m., 50.39 percent of the country's registered voters cast their ballots, while in the capital Bucharest, the voter turnout was just 44.24 percent, according to the election authorities. In a televised speech after the exit polls were made public, Iliescu said the results showed the maturity and responsibility of the Romanian people and that they rejected the extremism and totalitarian tendencies at a crucial moment for the nation. The main tasks facing his party after it takes office were to recover the economy, declare wars on poverty and crimes and work for the majority of the people, he said. He said his government will speed up the pace of integrating Romania into European Union (EU) and NATO, adding: "Our decision to accede was and remains unshakable." Iliescu, 70, the former president from 1990 to 1996, won 36.3 percent of votes in the November 26 first-round elections, against Tudor's 28.3 percent. Iliescu's Social Democracy Party also became the biggest party in parliament after the parliamentary elections. |
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