BUCHAREST, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Romania’s leftist Social Democrat Party won the most seats in both houses of parliament after a national election and will have a combined 221 deputies and senators, final results unveiled by the Central Electoral Bureau showed on Thursday.

Together with their long-time ally, the ALDE grouping, the PSD has an outright majority of 250 seats out of parliament’s 465-seat assembly, which means they will choose the country’s next prime minister to replace outgoing Dacian Ciolos. (Reporting by Radu Marinas; Editing by Hugh Lawson) </s> BUCHAREST, Romania — Romanian voters appeared to return the center-left Social Democratic Party to power in parliamentary elections on Sunday, a year after large protests in Bucharest over a deadly nightclub fire led to the resignation of the party’s previous government.

With more than 90 percent of the vote counted, the Social Democratic Party led with just over 46 percent. Its main rival, the National Liberal Party, trailed by more than 25 percentage points.

If that lead bears out, the Social Democratic Party will be in a position to lead the country in a coalition with the smaller Alliance of Liberals and Democrats party, which appeared to have just over 5 percent of the vote.

“Today, citizens voted for economic growth, for jobs, for more money into the pockets of Romanians,” Liviu Dragnea, the Social Democratic Party leader, said in a statement after exit polls pointed to a victory for the party. </s> *PSD will hold the majority in partnership with ALDE

The Social Democrats would have needed an extra 12 seats to hold the majority alone. The Save Romania Union (USR) won almost 630,000 votes, resulting in 43 seats in Parliament. The future Parliament will consist of six political parties, dozens of others having failed to cross the electoral threshold in Sunday’s elections.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) garnered 45.67 percent of the votes cast for the Senate in Sunday’s parliamentary elections at national level, and 45.47 percent of the votes cast for the Lower Chamber, Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) representative Marian Muhulet announced on Thursday.

PSD has 67 seats in the Senate and 154 seats in the Lower Chamber.

The National Liberal Party (PNL) obtained 30 seats in the Senate, with 20.41 percent of the votes, and 69 seats in the Lower Chamber, with 20.04 percent of the votes.

The Save Romania Union (USR) has 13 seats in the Senate (8.92 percent), and 30 seats in the Lower Chamber (8.87 percent).

The Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) has 9 seats in the Senate (6.24 percent), and 21 seats in the Lower Chamber (6.18 percent).

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) has 9 seats in the Senate, with 6 percent of the votes, and 20 seats in the Lower Chamber, with 5.62 percent of the votes.

The People’s Movement Party (PMP) has 8 seats in the Senate (5.65 percent), and 18 seats in the Lower Chamber (5.34 percent).

The representatives of ethnic minorities hold 17 seats in the Lower Chamber.

There are 465 MP seats overall.

Of the number of valid votes cast for the Senate, PSD won 3,221,786; PNL – 1,440,193; USR – 629,375; UDMR – 440,409; ALDE – 423,728; PMP – 398,791. Of the number of votes cast for the Lower Chamber, PSD won 3,204,864; PNL – 1,412,377; USR – 625,154; UDMR – 435,969; ALDE – 396,386; PMP – 376,891.

A total of 7,323,368 voters cast their ballots in the 11 December parliamentary elections. 7,047,384 valid ballots were cast for the Lower Chamber and 7,052,966 valid ballots were cast for the Senate.

Since the representatives of ethnic minorities other than the Hungarian minority won 17 seats (there were 16 seats at first but their number was hiked following a challenge), the future Parliament will have 465 MPs. This means the majority will consist of 233 MPs. PSD can secure this number only in partnership with ALDE.

PSD+ALDE hold the majority in the Senate (76 MPs, at least 69 needed). In the Lower Chamber, PSD+ALDE will have 174 MPs, 8 MPs in excess of the threshold needed (166 MPs).

13 political parties have failed to enter the Senate, including the United Romania Party (207,977 votes), Greater Romania Party (83,568 votes), the Romanian Ecologist Party (77,218 votes), Our Alliance Romania (66,774 votes) and the Romanian Socialist Party (32,808 votes).

The list of political parties who failed to enter the Lower Chamber is even longer, including 29 political parties and ethnic minorities’ unions.

The lowest number of votes for the Senate was registered by the Romanian Republican Party – 52 votes.

Who won the Diaspora and with how many votes

110,606 Romanians voted abroad, of whom only 4,591 opted for postal voting. Around 882,000 ballots were unused and consequently cancelled. Of the votes cast for the Lower Chamber, 861 were not valid and 267 were blank ballots. Of the votes cast for the Senate, 822 were not valid and 205 were blank ballots.

USR won the highest number of votes in the Diaspora: 31,461 votes for the Lower Chamber and 31,831 votes for the Senate. PNL was second, with 28,254 votes for the Lower Chamber and 28,453 votes for the Senate. PMP was third, with 25,254 votes for the Lower Chamber and 25,985 votes for the Senate.

PSD won over 10,000 votes for both the Lower Chamber and the Senate.

PSD did not secure absolute majority, PM’s office to be negotiated

PSD would have needed another 12 seats to fall under the provisions of Article 103, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution, which would have forced President Iohannis to appoint the Premier following consultations held exclusively with the party that holds the absolute majority.

(1) The President of Romania shall designate a candidate to the office of Prime Minister, as a result of his consultation with the party which has obtained absolute majority in Parliament, or -unless such majority exists – with the parties represented in Parliament.

PSD waited for BEC’s final and official results before any talks with President Iohannis, and this seems to have been the main reason behind PSD’s refusal to show up at the consultations that the Head of State initiated. Based on the exit-poll results and BEC’s partial results, the Social Democrats were hoping to win, through the seat reallocation process, another 12 seats besides the 221 seats they had initially won.

Lacking the absolute majority stipulated by the Constitution, PSD has to form a majority, something it has no problem doing alongside ALDE, as announced, the latter holding 29 seats following BEC’s announcement. In this case, the parliamentary majority of 252 MPs could vote to confirm a Government. If the signals concerning its openness to talks with UDMR result in UDMR joining a ruling coalition alongside PSD, then not only would the Government be easily confirmed, but it would also be able to adopt the laws it wants with a comfortable parliamentary majority. UDMR has 30 seats. These agreements are within reach and entail only protocols between these political parties which are tied by portfolios and positions held within the central and local administration.

There are rumours that PSD could recruit MPs from ALDE and other parties, in order to gain the 12 seats that separate it from the absolute majority mentioned by Article 103, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution. This too could be an explanation for PSD’s absence from the negotiations at the Presidential Palace. More precisely, in order for the MPs to be recruited and the needed seats gained, Parliament would have to be convened, the mandates would have to be validated, and other procedures would have to take place. Even so, it is very unlikely for the Head of State not to invoke BEC’s official results at the talks at Cotroceni, the results in which PSD is 12 seats short of holding the absolute majority alone.

What these parties cannot do on their own is appoint the Premier, this remaining the President’s prerogative.

Theoretically, the right wing of the political spectrum could secure a majority to back a Premier if all parties join hands and isolate PSD.

This is just a scenario. In 2004, Traian Basescu (who had won the presidential elections) managed to gather around Calin Popescu Tariceanu (nominated for PM’s office) the political forces that had previously been PSD’s partners, namely Dan Voiculescu’s PC and UDMR. That is how PSD ended up in the Opposition despite being the party with the highest number of seats.

Consequently, only after these results have been revealed and given the absence of a winner of the absolute majority can one say the Premier’s office is being negotiated. Between the Presidential Palace and the majority that is being formed. Only from now on will it matter whether this majority will form a single bloc around a single nominee for PM’s office, backing him in the face of the integrity criteria that President Iohannis announced. Liviu Dragnea had announced on the night of the euphoria of winning the absolute majority that PSD would decide and would then talk to ALDE too in order for a single nominee for PM’s office to be presented at the Presidential Palace. The maximum scenario, without potential for negotiation, a Digi24 analysis show. </s> Social-Democrats get 221 of the 465 seats in Romania’s new Parliament

Six political parties will be represented in Romania’s Parliament after the December 11 parliamentary elections. The Social Democratic Party (PSD), which won the elections with over 45% of the votes, will have 221 senators and deputies of the total 465 MPs.

PSD is just 12 mandates short of making a majority in the Parliament and will likely cooperate with the Liberal Democratic Alliance (ALDE), led by former Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, which got 29 mandates. PSD may also try to get support from the Democratic Magyar Union (UDMR), which will have 30 seats in the new Parliament, and from the minorities, which will be represented by 17 deputies.

PSD will thus propose a Prime Minister candidate to President Klaus Iohannis, which will most likely happen next week.

The other three parties that made it to the Parliament are the National Liberal Party (PNL), with 99 mandates, the Save Romania Union (USR), with 43, and former President Traian Basescu’s Popular Movement Party (PMP), with 26. PNL, USR, and PMP will likely form the “center-right” opposition in the Parliament.

The equation of power in the Parliament may change, however, as it’s quite common to see MPs switch sides and join other parties than the ones who got them elected.

The biggest unknown right now is what will happen to the National Liberal Party (PNL), whose poor score in the elections, of just 20%, will lead to changes in its leadership. A scenario that has been rumored in recent days is that PNL may reunite with ALDE, as Calin Popescu Tariceanu is still one of the most popular liberal leaders in Romania. Tariceanu was PNL’s president from 2005 until 2009. He left PNL in 2014, after the liberals broke their alliance with PSD, a move that Tariceanu opposed.

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[email protected] </s> Election authorities said that with 99 of the votes from Sunday's balloting counted, the Social Democratic Party led with about 46 and the -right Liberals were second with over 20 .

The chairman of the Social Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, spoke Sunday after exit polls were released showing similar results. "There should be no doubt who won the elections," he said. "Romanians want to feel at home in their own country and I want Romania to be a good home for all Romanians."

Dragnea got a two-year suspended prison sentence in April for voter fraud for inflating voter numbers in a July 2012 referendum to impeach then-President Traian Basescu.

Dragnea's party has pushed a populist agenda, but on Sunday he sought to strike a conciliatory note, saying he wanted to end bitter divisions in the country.

The Save Romania Union, a new party that ran on an anti-corruption ticket, finished third, allowing it to enter Parliament. A party needs 5 of the votes to enter the bicameral legislature. Votes from parties that do not make the threshold are redistributed.

Turnout for the election was low, at just 39.5 , more than two percentage points less than the 2012 parliamentary elections.

Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, already the subject of a corruption probe, resigned after mass protests following a nightclub fire in October 2015 that killed 64 people. Romania is currently run by a government of technocrats headed by Premier Dacian Ciolos, a former European Union agriculture commissioner.

The country of about 19 million people is one of the poorest in the 28-member European Union and perceived as one of the most corrupt. </s> The head of the Social Democrat Party, Liviu Dragnea, speaks to media after exit polls were announced in the parliamentary elections in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016. Two exit polls give Romania's left-leaning Social Democrats a huge lead in a parliamentary election placing them first with about 45 percent while the center-right Liberals came second with about 21 percent of the vote, although these are provisional estimates. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's left-leaning Social Democrats easily won parliamentary elections a year after a major anti-corruption drive forced the last Socialist prime minister from power, near-final results released Monday showed.

Election authorities said that with 99 percent of the votes from Sunday's balloting counted, the Social Democratic Party had won about 46 percent and the center-right Liberals were second with over 20 percent.

The chairman of the Social Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, spoke Sunday after exit polls showed similar results. "There should be no doubt who won the elections," he said. "Romanians want to feel at home in their own country and I want Romania to be a good home for all Romanians."

Dragnea got a two-year suspended prison sentence in April for voter fraud for inflating voter numbers in a July 2012 referendum to impeach then-President Traian Basescu.

Under a 2001 law, Dragnea is not allowed to be appointed prime minister because of the conviction, and last week he said the party would not try to change the law. However, he told Romania TV Monday that he had not ruled himself out as a future premier.

President Klaus Iohannis has said he will not nominate a premier who has been convicted or who is a subject of a corruption investigation.

Dragnea's party has pushed a populist agenda, but on Sunday he sought to strike a conciliatory note, saying he wanted to end bitter divisions in the country.

The Save Romania Union, a new party that ran on an anti-corruption ticket, finished third, allowing it to enter Parliament. A party needs 5 percent of the votes to enter the bicameral legislature. Votes from parties that do not make the threshold are redistributed.

Turnout for the election was low, at just 39.5 percent, more than two percentage points less than the 2012 parliamentary elections.

Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, already the subject of a corruption probe, resigned after mass protests following a nightclub fire in October 2015 that killed 64 people. Romania is currently run by a government of technocrats headed by Premier Dacian Ciolos, a former European Union agriculture commissioner.

The country of about 19 million people is one of the poorest in the 28-member European Union and perceived as one of the most corrupt. </s> ZAGREB, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Croatia's Social Democrats were in the lead in Sunday's parliamentary elections according to an exit poll on state television that forecast the party would win 58 seats in the 151-seat parliament.

The conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) came second with 57 seats, while the centre-right Most ("Bridge") party, widely seen as a potential kingmaker, came third with 11 seats. (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Igor Ilic, editing by Thomas Escritt) </s> BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s left-leaning Social Democrats easily won parliamentary elections a year after a major anti-corruption drive forced the last Socialist prime minister from power, near-final results released Monday showed.

Election authorities said that with 99 percent of the votes from Sunday’s balloting counted, the Social Democratic Party had won about 46 percent and the center-right Liberals were second with over 20 percent.

The chairman of the Social Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, spoke Sunday after exit polls showed similar results. “There should be no doubt who won the elections,” he said. “Romanians want to feel at home in their own country and I want Romania to be a good home for all Romanians.”

Dragnea got a two-year suspended prison sentence in April for voter fraud for inflating voter numbers in a July 2012 referendum to impeach then-President Traian Basescu.

Under a 2001 law, Dragnea is not allowed to be appointed prime minister because of the conviction, and last week he said the party would not try to change the law. However, he told Romania TV Monday that he had not ruled himself out as a future premier.

President Klaus Iohannis has said he will not nominate a premier who has been convicted or who is a subject of a corruption investigation.

Dragnea’s party has pushed a populist agenda, but on Sunday he sought to strike a conciliatory note, saying he wanted to end bitter divisions in the country.

The Save Romania Union, a new party that ran on an anti-corruption ticket, finished third, allowing it to enter Parliament. A party needs 5 percent of the votes to enter the bicameral legislature. Votes from parties that do not make the threshold are redistributed.

Turnout for the election was low, at just 39.5 percent, more than two percentage points less than the 2012 parliamentary elections.

Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, already the subject of a corruption probe, resigned after mass protests following a nightclub fire in October 2015 that killed 64 people. Romania is currently run by a government of technocrats headed by Premier Dacian Ciolos, a former European Union agriculture commissioner.

The country of about 19 million people is one of the poorest in the 28-member European Union and perceived as one of the most corrupt. </s> Exit polls show Romania's leftists winning parliamentary vote

By Radu-Sorin Marinas and Luiza Ilie

BUCHAREST, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Romania's leftist Social Democrats (PSD) won Sunday's parliamentary election by a wide margin, exit polls showed, putting them in a strong position to form a coalition government with a junior ally.

Seeking re-election a year after the coalition it led stepped down amid street protests over its failure to address corruption, the PSD appears to have won the support of many Romanians with promises of increased social spending.

Exit polls conducted by CURS-Avangarde and IRES showed the PSD winning close to 46 percent of the vote, followed by the centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL) with about 22 percent. The Save Romania Union party, a newcomer to Romanian politics, was seen winning around 9.2 percent.

The Central Electoral Bureau is expected to release first official partial results on Monday morning.

Observers said a PSD-led government would likely bloat public spending, raising the risk that Romanian fiscal deficits could exceed the European Union's 3 percent of GDP limits.

With its leader, Liviu Dragnea, convicted of vote-rigging in April, the PSD is also seen as a threat to Romania's recent efforts to step up anti-corruption reforms.

"I am ... overwhelmed by the result," Dragnea said after the exit poll results were announced.

"Romania is an island of stability in the region. All political factors must understand and respect today's vote."

Dragnea also said his party will start talks to form a parliamentary majority with long-time ally ALDE, expected to take about 6 percent of the vote.

A calculation by private television Antena 3 based on raw official ballot data showed PSD winning 47 percent and ALDE 5 percent.

"In the coming days, PSD and ALDE will begin discussions in order to form a new majority in parliament ... Today's vote clearly indicates Romanians' choice for a future government," Dragnea said in a statement.

POLICY TURNAROUND

The election follows a year of a technocrat government in Romania - the EU's fastest-growing economy but also one of its poorest - put in place after massive street protests brought down the previous PSD-led government.

Triggered by a deadly fire in the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest that lacked emergency exits and other safety measures, the protests called for sweeping change in Romania to address chronically inept public administration and graft.

But many of the younger voters who took to the streets then failed to vote on Sunday, underscoring a lack of trust that reforms can take root.

The PSD's electorate traditionally stems from older, poorer Romanians, eager to hear the party's message that centres around public sector wage hikes, tax cuts and higher pensions.

"The exit polls results mean that we will have a leftist government," said political commentator Mircea Marian. "The main problem is that, step by step, very slowly, they will likely change legislation in the anti-corruption field."

Both PSD and ALDE politicians have accused anti-corruption prosecutors, who have won EU praise for their efforts, of being politically motivated in their investigations. Dragnea told reporters in June that Romanians must choose between "better bread or handcuffs."

During its previous years in government, between 2012-2015, the PSD reversed austerity policies put in place after a 2008 real estate crash by cutting taxes and raising the minimum wage and public-sector pay.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, now expects Romania's deficit to quadruple from 0.8 percent of economic output in 2015 to 3.2 percent in 2017 under European accounting terms.
Romania's centre-left Social Democratic Party won 45% of the seats in both houses of parliament in Sunday's election, and with the expected participation of the liberal centre-right Alliance of Liberals and Democrats Party in the coalition government, will hold an outright majority of 250 seats in the 465-seat assembly.