By Luiza Ilie
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanians voted on Sunday in a presidential ballot expected to replace anti-corruption champion Traian Basescu with a leftist who says he will end a political crisis that is jeopardising an IMF-led bailout.
With an eight-point lead in opinion polls this week, challenger Mircea Geoana has won support from 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 that could decide whether the country of 22 million can resume its bid to catch up with the richer West.
He must also name a new prime minister after opposition parties toppled a centrist Basescu-allied cabinet in October, and address reforms prescribed by the International Monetary Fund to unlock a stalled 20 billion euro ($30.15 billion) aid package.
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 ex-communist Social Democrats will turn a blind eye to the corruption that has plagued Romanians since they overthrew one of the Soviet era's most repressive regimes and executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu 20 years ago.
But many Romanians have tired of Basescu's confrontational style, which has contributed to the fall of two governments during his five years in power.
"This time I'll vote for anyone except Basescu... Look how badly the country is doing," said Dorel Popa, a 61-year-old taxi driver.
Romania is the EU's second poorest state after neighbour Bulgaria. Its economy doubled in size from 2004-2008, but the boom ended last year. Purchasing power per capita has stalled at 46 percent of the EU average, and an estimated 2 million Romanians have left to work in countries like 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 period after Ceausescu's fall.
Geoana, a 51-year-old former foreign minister and envoy to Washington, has blamed Basescu for the political turmoil and indicated he will resist IMF-backed austerity measures that 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.
Election officials said turnout was 40 percent at 1400 GMT, up from 36 percent in a November 22 first round. 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 instalment.
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 acts as a brake on growth.
Geoana, head of the Social Democrats, has agreed to rule with the second largest Liberal Party and name provincial mayor Klaus Johannis -- a member of a small ethnic-German party -- as prime minister if he wins.
Analysts say leftists and Liberals may struggle to agree on how to meet the IMF's terms, and any delay could hurt the leu currency, which is down 4.7 percent versus the euro this year.
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 corruption watchdog 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 Mark Trevelyan)
