Romania’s prime minister was headed for victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday that could set off another round of a power struggle with the rightist president and complicate talks for a new IMF deal.
Victor Ponta’s leftist Social Liberal Union (USL) will win the most votes and possibly a clear majority, opinion polls showed. But analysts said President Traian Basescu might use his powers to ask one of his own allies to try to form a government.
Any prolonged period without a new administration in place would unnerve markets and raise questions about how Romania would obtain a new International Monetary Fund deal once the current agreement expires in early next year.
Heavy snow, rain and fog across the Balkan country delayed the opening of some polling stations but Ponta said all citizens were able to cast ballots. Polls will close at 9 pm (3 am HKT) with first results due early on Monday.
“I am convinced that today Romania will write a new page in its history and things will get better,” he said in his Targu Jiu constituency, a mining town a few hours from Bucharest.
The former communist country has made progress in some areas since the 1989 revolution that overthrew dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, but although it joined the European Union in 2007, it remains the bloc’s second poorest member.