December 13, 2004

Reform candidate Basescu wins Romanian presidential runoff

By ALEXANDRU ALEXE

BUCHAREST , Romania (AP) Prime Minister Adrian Nastase conceded defeat Monday in Romania 's presidential runoffs, calling opponent Traian Basescu the country's future president.

"It is the decision of the Romanian people and I respect it," Nastase said. "I congratulate Basescu" and have congratulated him personally on the phone today, Nastase said. "Basescu is the future president of Romania ."

A small political party that initially had supported Nastase's Social Democractic Party, quickly issued a statement expressing its independence.

Basescu, Bucharest 's mayor, held a decisive lead in Romania 's presidential runoff with less than 2 percent of the ballots remaining to be counted, according to official partial results released Monday.

Basescu's victory dealt a major blow to the successors of Romania 's communists, who have governed for most of the period since the 1989 revolution.

President Ion Iliescu, who had supported Nastase, also called Basescu on Monday to congratulate him, the president's spokeswoman, Corina Cretu, said. She added that Iliescu said the runoff elections were fair and that they confirmed Romania has a working democracy.

With 98.76 percent of the ballots counted, Basescu had 51.23 percent of the vote, compared with Prime Minister Adrian Nastase's 48.77.

The final tally was expected later Monday.

Early results from Sunday's election sent hundreds of Basescu supporters onto the streets in cities around Romania .

The opposition is seen by many Romanians as less connected to the communists who ruled until a violent 1989 revolution, and less tainted by corruption and political foul play. However, Nastase's Social Democratic Party has overseen a period of economic growth _ and the opposition, in four years in power until 2000, proved unable to reform a system riddled with corruption.

The winner will have to nominate the future government. In the parliamentary elections, Nastase's party won 189 of 469 seats, while Basescu's Alliance won 161.

Neither has enough seats to form a majority.

On Monday, the Humanist Party, which had supported Nastase's party, distanced itself from the Social Democrats in a statement. The "reaffirmed its political independence," adding that its deal with the ruling party was only an electoral alliance and not a governing pact.

Basescu, 53, said he wanted to form a government with the Alliance . In an interview with the Romanian service of the British Broadcasting Corp., he said he would not form a government with the nationalist Greater Romania Party.

Diplomats say U.S. and European officials have explicitly warned candidates not to ally themselves with nationalist party leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor.

By law, the president names a prime minister, who then needs to be approved by a vote in parliament. The president can dissolve parliament if it fails to approve a government within 60 days.

Basescu had campaigned for economic reform, promising to lower taxes and fight corruption. He is also seen as a social reformer and has said he supports greater rights for gays _ a stance that drew heavy criticism from the Orthodox Christian Church.

Both candidates support Romania joining the European Union, which is expected to happen Jan. 1, 2007 . Nastase, 54, takes credit for completing membership talks and this year's 8.1 percent economic growth.