2014 Presidential election: Ponta to face Iohannis in the run-off

Left-wing candidate, Victor Ponta, wins the first round of Romanian presidential election, scoring 40.33 percent with 98.3 percent of the vote counted. The Prime Minister will compete against Klaus Iohannis in the run-off which will be held on November 16, 2014, the ACL candidate ranking the second in this first round, with 30.44 percent of the vote, according to the preliminary results released by BEC (the Central Electoral Bureau).

Voter turnout for presidential election was 53.16 percent, slightly below the 53.52 percentage recorded in 2009.

Ponta, who is supported by the PSD-UNPR-PC alliance, has won election in most of the counties in Moldova, Muntenia and Oltenia regions, while Iohannis has obtained majority of the vote registered up to this point in counties within Transilvania and Banat regions.

As indicated by pre-election polls, the top five as per Romanians voting is completed by former Prime Minister and current President of Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu who got 5.40 percent of the vote, as independent candidate, followed by the PMP leader, Elena Udrea, with 5.18 percent and Monica Macovei with 4.46 percent, also as an independent.

While Tariceanu’s scoring is in line with the anticipated results, Elena Udrea scores below PMP ‘s expectations, hence, the most important question is how will be redistributed the votes of theirs and the other candidates’ supporters which will be decisive in electing the next President of Romania.

The other nine contenders engaged in the presidential race have shared the votes of the 14.19 percent of the electors: Dan Diaconescu (3.99 pct), Kelemen Hunor (3.50 pct), Corneliu Vadim Tudor (3.66 pct), Teodor Melescanu (1.10 pct), Zsolt Szilagyi (0.56 pct), Gheorghe Funar (0.48 pct), William Branza (0.45 pct), Constatin Rotaru (0.30 pct) and Mircea Amaritei (0.08 percent).