Romanian Socialists Win Most Votes, Exit Polls Show (Update1)

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg


Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Romania’s Social Democratic Party, formed by ex-communists, won the most votes in general elections after promising more social benefits to buffer the impact of the global financial crisis, exit polls showed.

The Social Democrats won 36.2 percent of the vote in the lower house of Parliament, ahead of the Liberal Democrat Party with 30.3 percent, according to an exit poll by INSOMAR pollsters and released on Realitatea television in Bucharest. The ruling National Liberal Party won 20.4 percent, it said. Official results will be released by the end of the week.

The 18 million eligible voters in the Black Sea nation of 22 million were asked to decide which party is best able to deal with the fallout of the worldwide economic turmoil after years of increasing prosperity. Romanians fear an economic slowdown, including layoffs and losses of foreign investment as the national currency weakens and markets slump.

“Romanians voted for an intelligent and capable state for a hard time ahead,” Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana said today before hundreds of flag-waving supporters outside his party headquarters in Bucharest today. “Romanians who voted today supported our message of change in the country as we start down this long hard road.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLLUR2mGIhhY&refer=home

[Joanne98]

1. Update 4

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Romania’s ruling National Liberal Party ends its campaign behind two rival parties in today’s elections as voters choose a government that will have to shield the economy from global turmoil and protect the Balkan nation’s newfound prosperity.

The party trails the Social Democrats, a party of ex- communists that is the most popular, and the Liberal Democrat Party. No party is expected to win an outright majority, signaling coalition talks may drag on to the end of the month. Voting ends at 9 p.m. Exit polls will be released tonight, while the Central Electoral Bureau may post final results in four or five days.

“The shape of the new government will really be decided well after the vote,” said Ana-Maria Mosneagu, the director of the Pro-Democracy Association advocacy group in Bucharest. “It’s impossible to tell right now which party will come out on top of that process.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a9YZFnKX6uVI&refer=europe

[SOS]

2. Good news!

Hopefully more nations will realize that globalized capitalism is a failure.
Almost every country is South America has rejected the Washington consensus.
Good to see Eastern Europe is waking up to the crimes of Wall Street.

[WriteDown]

3. My friend from Romania...

was in tears the other day, and not tears of joy. Its important to remember that these are communists and not socialists.

[pork medley]

4. uh no, the social democrats are a run-of-the-mill center left party

there is no reason to be in tears of any sort over this. your friend is a whiner.

[WriteDown]

5. If you lived through

Ceausescu, you'd probably be a "whiner" too.

[SOS]

6. The PSD leader, Mircea Geoana

is a career diplomat who was the Romanian ambassador to the US from 1996-2000.
Hardly Ceausescu.

[davidinalameda]

8. disgusting

calling someone who lived through one of the most repressive communist regimes a whiner?

I hope you never have to experience anything like that; I wonder how fast you'd turn into a whiner if you had to

[IndianaGreen]

9. Whiner!

And I will tell that person to their face!

[davidinalameda]

10. whatever

and you wonder why Americans are hated around the world

it's because we try and judge others when we have NO idea what they went through

calling someone a whiner

[IndianaGreen]

11. May I remind you that Democratic and Republican administrations toasted the Ceausescus

and hailed them as great friends of the West.

[davidinalameda]

14. and they were wrong as well!

[David__77]

7. Please... everyone is a "former communist" in Romania, if old enough.

There were millions of party members, and they are today found not only among the socialists, but across the political spectrum. The far right with Vadim Tudor is more pro-Ceausescu than the left is. That said, rampant unrestrained capitalism, as advanced by the liberals, is no better than Ceausescu for millions of working people who have lower living standards than in the 1970's.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. The phrase that went around the Soviet Union for most of the 90's

"Everything the communists told us about communism was false. But everything they told us about capitalism was true."

[pork medley]

13. popular joke in Russia circa 1993

q: what did 1 year of capitalism do that 70 years of communism couldn't?
a: make communism look good!