Romanian Presidential Elections: To Close To Call

Two exit polls conducted by separate polling institutes show results in the presidential elections too close to call a winner: INSOMAR polling institute interviewed 17,546 voters and found a clear draw: 50% of the votes went for the incumbent PM Adrian Nastase, running on the Social Democrat Party-Romanian Humanist Party ticket, and another 50% of the votes going for the Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu, running on the National Liberal Party-Democrat Party ticket. In absolute terms that meant only one vote difference.

While the exit poll conducted by the CURS polling institute showed Nastase had a slight advantage, with 50.7% of the votes, over Basescu, who got 49.3% of the vote. However, one hour later CURS changed its findings and arrived at the same 50/50 draw.
The results of the exit polls are within the margin of error of 2% of the exit polls, hence totally inconclusive.

The voters’ turnover at 8 p.m. local time was 53.33%, according to figures released by the Central Electoral Bureau. However, this does not bare any consequences on the elections being valid, since any number of voters casting their votes would have decided on the outcome.

The voters’ turnover in the second round of the presidential elections this year is some 3% higher than in 2000, when some 50.39% of the voters cast their votes by 8 p.m. While in the first round of presidential elections, on 28 November 2004, the voters’ turnover was 57.3%.

In urban areas some 51.96% of the people voted, while in rural areas 55.2% of the people voted. The highest voters’ turnover were in Teleorman county, with 61.29% of the votes; Dambovita county, with 61.01%; Braila county, with 60.49%; Vrancea county, with 59.39%; and Constanta county, with 59.37%. The lowest voters’ turnover were in Satu-Mare county, with 36.25%; Covasna county - 38.72%; Timis county - 45.76%, Harghita county - 46.77%, and Salaj county - 47.04%.

In Bucharest some 52.38% of the people voted.
Some 55.71% of the people voted in the 1st District, some 53.87% voted in the 2nd District, some 49.35% voted in the 3rd District, some 52.22% voted in the 4th District, some 49.13% voted in the 5th District, and some 54.60% voted in the 6th District.
The voters’ turnover was estimated on their count in 2,570 polling stations.