Five Romanian political organisations will have members in European Parliament

Five political organisations in Romania will have members in the European Parliament, according to the exit poll results presented on November 25 after elections. The exit poll carried out by the survey company CSOP says that the Democratic Party (PD) has scored a comfortable win in Romania’s first election of members of the European Parliament. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) came second in the poll. It is followed by the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR). The Greater Romania Party (PRM) is the only one that did not reach the electoral threshold. PD polled 31.7%, PSD – 20.8%, PNL – 15.2%, PLD - 6.9%, UDMR - 6.2%. The independent candidate Ladislau Tokes won 3.8% of the vote and become a MEP. He heeded about 2.8% to enter the European Parliament. The Romanian MPs will hold 35 seats in the European Parliament. The seats will be distributed after the official vote counting is over, taking also into account the exact number of votes obtained by the parties that remained outside the European Parliament, polling less than 5%. According to Romanian press reports, the most vehement reaction came from the PRM leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor, who announced he would resign as senator following the extremely poor results in the poll. According to the exit poll carried out by TNS CSOP by order of Realitatea TV, the turnover at the referendum on the introduction of a uninominal voting system at 21.00 was 34.3%. The low turnout invalidated the referendum, though 89.1% of the participants voted in favour of the system proposed by President Traian Basescu.