{"id":104829,"date":"2020-12-07T10:43:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T02:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=104829"},"modified":"2020-12-07T10:43:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T02:43:08","slug":"romania-election-liberals-and-social-democrats-in-neck-and-neck-race-exit-polls-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=104829","title":{"rendered":"Romania election: Liberals and Social Democrats in neck-and-neck race, exit polls show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"An<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BUCHAREST, Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Romania’s parliamentary election<\/a> appeared too close to call, with exit polls released Sunday evening showing a dead-heat between the governing liberals and the left-wing opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Prime Minister Ludovic Orban claimed victory for his center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) despite the close call, another poll showed the left-wing Social Democrats (PSD) gaining a slim lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Talks to form a majority … won’t be long … this country needs a government as soon as possible,” Orban told supporters, adding that his party had four potential coalition partners to form a majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One exit poll put PNL at 32%, with the PSD garnering 28%. Another exit poll showed a different outcome, putting the PSD, who have dominated Romanian politics since the fall of communism in 1989, ahead at 30.5%. The PNL was set to gain 29%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming in third place in both polls with 16% was the progressive USR-PLUS Alliance, a mix of pro-EU technocrats and social justice and anti-corruption activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first official results are due to be released later on Sunday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite dissatisfaction with the coronavirus pandemic response, Orban<\/a> has gained support for the PNL by pledging to modernize the country and maintain a “pro-European” path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over 18 million Romanians were eligible to vote, although turnout dipped to historic lows in part due to concerns over becoming infected with the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling stations required voters to wear masks, maintain social distancing and sanitize their hands \u2014 but no additional virus precautions were put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Sunday afternoon, only a quarter of those who were eligible to vote had cast their ballots, according to data released by Romania’s Central Election Bureau. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data put voter turnout at 33%, a record low for a parliamentary election in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should the PNL continue to hold on to its lead, the pro-European party would be on track to become the largest party in Romania’s 465-seat bicameral parliament for the first time in 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>The PNL would still fall short of a governing majority, with analysts predicting that the party could try to seek a coalition with the USR-PLUS Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PNL and the USR-PLUS Alliance campaigned on promises to reform Romania’s civil service and bolster the country’s public health and education systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Social Democrats (PSD) won the previous election in 2016 by a landslide, but the party faced massive anti-corruption protests and disputes with the EU over controversial judicial reforms and graft scandals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PNL took the reins\u00a0of a rocky minority government<\/a>\u00a0a year ago after the Social Democrats\u00a0ran through three prime ministers<\/a>\u00a0and dozens of minister reshuffles. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BUCHAREST, Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Romania’s parliamentary election appeared too close to call, with exit polls released Sunday evening showing a dead-heat between the governing liberals and the left-wing opposition. While Prime Minister Ludovic Orban claimed victory for his center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) despite the close call, another poll showed the left-wing Social Democrats (PSD) gaining a slim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":104832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104829"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}