- Title: ROMANIA: ROMANIANS VOTE IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
- Date: 17th November 1996
- Summary: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA (NOVEMBER 17, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV EXTERIOR JEAN MONNET HIGH SCHOOL 0.06 2. CU REPORTERS 0.09 3. SV INCUMBENT PRESIDENT ION ILIESCU ,(PARTY OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY (PSDR) AND WIFE, NINA, VOTING 0.28 4. SV/CU EXTERIOR, PEOPLE CLAPPING/ CROWD SURROUNDING ILIESCU, ILIESCU TALKING TO CROWD (2 SHOTS) 0.43 5. SLV/CU EXTERIORS CONSTANTIN BRANCOVEANU SCHOOL (2 SHOTS) 0.51 6. SV REFORMIST CHALLENGER EMIL CONSTANTINESCU , (OF DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION (CDR), AND WIFE NADIA ENTERING POLLING STATION 1.04 7. CU/SV OF CONSTANTINESCU AND WIFE NADIA CASTING VOTE (2 SHOTS) 2.02 8. SV/CU POLLING STATION, PEOPLE VOTING (5 SHOTS) 2.37 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 2nd December 1996 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
- City:
- Country: Romania
- Reuters ID: LVADLOS61KOT2KTSIJ8J8PZCA95J
- Story Text: INTRO: Romanians have been voting in a presidential election which pits incumbent Ion Iliescu against centrist rival Emil Constantinescu -- two politicians with radically different views of the country's future.
------------------------------------------------------------------- Romanians went to vote in a presidential election on Sunday (November 17) that could end a long period of rule by ex-communists.
Reformist Emil Constantinescu is locked in a tight run-off fight against Ion Iliescu, a former communist who has ruled for the nearly seven years since Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was ousted and executed.
Iliescu, a senior official under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, is running neck-and-neck with Constantinescu, an academic who held no office under communism.
More than 15,000 polling stations opened across the country at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT).
Exit polls will give the first indication of the result shortly after the last vote is cast at midnight (2200 gmt). Official results will trickle in throughout Monday.
The opposition says leftists hijacked the 1989 revolution to seize power. They say the election can end Romania's status as the one Eastern European country where anti-communists have not held power and finally improve the country's image abroad.
Constantinescu pledges a new era of clean government, better economic management and reforms to stop living standards in Romania lagging further behind ex-communist near neighbours like Hungary and Poland.
The geology professor charges Iliescu led a corrupt, incompetent administration that failed to remedy Romania's fiscal woes and crumbling infrastructure.
He has taken heart from the first round of voting two weeks ago when Romanians, fed up with eking out an average salary of some 100 United States dollars a month, ousted Iliescu's leftist party from government and installed Constantinescu's reform group.
First round voting was marked by confusion over outdated voters lists, with thousands having to register on "additional lists". But international observers pronounced the ballot generally free and fair.
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