Romania election too close to call

Romania’s Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu both claimed victory in the presidential election after exit polls showed them in a dead heat.

The results from yesterday’s polls sent hundreds of Basescu supporters to University Square in downtown Bucharest, dancing and singing his name. Dozens of riot police ringed the demonstrators, who waved orange balloons and the orange flags of the centrist Justice and Truth Alliance.

Basescu arrived shortly after midnight in the square dressed in an orange jacket accompanied by Calin Tariceanu Popescu, his political partner.

“We won!” hundreds yelled. Basescu told his supporters to go home and return the next day.

“My joy is big, I know that Romania must be led by someone who loves its people,” he said.

He urged supporters to go home and return today to celebrate after results are published. The crowd responded by saying “We’re not leaving.”

Dan Jijiev, a 34-year-old, engineer, said, “If Basescu doesn’t win, we will have a second Ukraine. I will stay here until they get rid of Nastase.”

Basescu’s colour – orange – is coincidentally the same as that of the party of Ukraine’s presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, whose supporters have brought it to worldwide attention in their protests against the result of Ukraine’s presidential runoff. That contest is to be rerun December 26.

Basescu, the 53-year-old Bucharest mayor, declared he had won, saying “I thank the Romanian electorate and I assure them I will be a president for Romania.”

However, Nastase insisted “I will be a strong president.” He also said he was waiting for the final results.

The atmosphere was sombre at the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party. Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana said the government would accept the election results, whatever they were.

But late yesterday, dozens of Nastase’s supporters rallied at the party headquarters, chanting “We fight, we fight and we win.” The party later offered a fireworks show to its supporters.

Basescu – who after the first round claimed there had been fraud by the ruling party – yesterday urged state institutions to count every vote correctly, saying he was confident that they would do so.

Authorities were expected to release partial results early today, with final results expected on Wednesday.