Opposition Cries Foul Over Romanian Poll

The Romanian opposition leader, Traian Basescu, yesterday demanded a re-run of Sunday's general election, alleging widespread fraud in the voting which brought a closer-than-expected result and left the formerly communist Social Democrats the strongest party.

Mr Basescu, the popular mayor of Bucharest, who faces a run-off for the presidency after coming second in Sunday's simultaneous presidential election, invoked a parallel with neighbouring Ukraine.

"It's necessary to repeat the elections," he told a press conference in Bucharest.

"The entire election process is compromised ... We want the immediate dismissal of the election authorities."

With almost all of the votes counted yesterday the Social Democrats had 36%, five points ahead of the Justice and Truth alliance, led by Mr Basescu.

In the presidential ballot, Mr Basescu took 34% to the Social Democrat prime minister Adrian Nastase's 41%.

Mr Basescu received a partial vindication of his claim from independent election monitors, international and Romanian. Small-scale tampering with the vote could skew the result, since fewer than 500,000 votes separate the two main contenders in the parliamentary election.