Crisis-hit Romania votes for president

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanians voted on Sunday in a presidential ballot expected to replace anti-graft campaigner Traian Basescu with a leftist who says he will end a political crisis that has put an IMF-led rescue package at risk.

With an eight-point lead in opinion polls, challenger Mircea Geoana has won support from many voters frustrated by clashes in parliament over Basescu's drive to root out corrupt politicians.

Analysts see the vote as one of Romania's most important since the fall of communism, as the new president must steer long-delayed reforms prescribed by the International Monetary Fund to unlock a stalled 20 billion euro aid package.

He must also name a new prime minister after opposition parties toppled a Basescu-allied cabinet in October.

Basescu, 58, has said the IMF requirements, including up to 150,000 public job cuts, are key for the EU newcomer to claw back from an expected 8 percent economic contraction this year.

He has also said Geoana's socialist PSD party will turn a blind eye to the graft which has plagued Romanians since they overthrew one of the Soviet era's most repressive regimes and executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu 20 years ago this month.

But many in the nation of 22 million are tired of Basescu's confrontational style, which has contributed to the fall of two governments during his five years power.

"Nothing has really changed in this country over the past five years," said Eduard Bujor, an engineering student, after voting on the chilly, grey morning. "Geoana has convinced me he is the only one who can stop politicians from fighting."

Romania is the EU's second poorest state after neighbour Bulgaria. Its economy doubled from 2004-2008, but the boom ended last year and purchasing power per capita has stalled at 46 percent of the EU's average and an estimated 2 million Romanians have left to work in countries such as Spain and Italy.

ECONOMIC WORRY

Basescu suffered a blow last week when television stations aired footage that appeared to show him hitting a 10-year-old boy in the face at a 2004 rally. He says the footage is fake.

Geoana, meanwhile, stumbled in a televised debate when he revealed he had gone to a media mogul's house for a private meeting late on Wednesday. Basescu said it showed Geoana was under the thumb of oligarchs who grabbed wealth and power in the murky economic and political time following Ceausescu's fall.

But Geoana, a 51-year-old former envoy to Washington, has struck a chord by blaming Basescu for polarising politics.

He has also indicated he will resist IMF austerity measures, which sparked a strike by 800,000 state workers in October.

"I hope we will have wisdom to choose unity, stability and the hope of a new start," Geoana said after casting his vote.

Exit polls are due at 1900 GMT and official results on Monday at the earliest.

The future cabinet must cut the budget gap to 5.9 percent of gross domestic product next year, versus 7.3 percent this year, for the IMF to release the next 1.5 billion euro loan.

Key to that will be overhauling the public sector. It employs 1.3 million workers, a third of all jobs, and has an opaque bonus system that often rewards a select elite, is a millstone on the budget and a brake on growth.

Geoana, praised for his negotiation skills as a diplomat, has agreed with coalition partner the Liberal Party to name provincial mayor Klaus Johannis as prime minister if he wins.

Analysts say the two parties may struggle to agree on how to meet the IMF's terms, and any delay would hurt the leu currency, which is down 4.7 percent versus the euro this year.

"The probability that the coalition of actually getting the IMF loan by late January is fairly slim," said Raffaella Tenconi, chief economist at Wood & Co.

And while Basescu has tried to probe politicians suspected of graft, Geoana's Social Democrats blocked cases, a problem for a country ranked last in the EU by Transparency International.

"I don't care about corruption any more," said Antonel Mocanu, a 29-year-old security guard. "All I want is to have a place to work so I can start a family."

(Additional reporting by Luiza Ilie; Writing by Michael Winfrey; Editing by Louise Ireland)

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedinBeloudBluesky