Romanian elections hit by fraud claims

Romania’s opposition leader called for the results of the weekend parliamentary and presidential elections to be annulled today and for a rerun to be held, claiming fraud.

Traian Basescu, who heads the centrist Justice and Truth Alliance and is running for president, claimed that election authorities had given an extra 160,000 ballots, or 2.5% of the votes, to his rival, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase.