Romania goes to polls today

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS: Romanians go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new President and Parliament. The former President, the ex-communist, Mr. Ion Iliescu, who ran the country from 1990 to 1996, is the front- runner. Opinion polls say he will win over 40 per cent of the vote in Sunday's first round. His party, the Romanian Democratic Socialists, is also expected to emerge as the single largest political formation in this country of 22 million people. The extreme right leader, Mr. Cornelieu Vadim Tudor, is expected to clock in second with 19 per cent of the vote. Many Romanians harbour a certain nostalgia for the former communist system where wages were paid, health care, howsoever paltry, was available and life was easygoing albeit poor, if one minded one's business and kept out of the way of the dreaded secret service, the Securitate. There are 64 parties vying for the 486 seats that make up the country's bi-cameral Parliament. Only seven of them are expected to win seats.

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Section  : International
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