EU: Romania's Social Democrats Win Election Marked By Far-Right Challenge

Early vote count suggested that the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) was set to grab the largest share of votes in a parliamentary election held on Sunday. The contest saw mainstream parties try to fend off challenge from anti-establishment far-right parties, emboldened by the unexpected victory of ultranationalist candidate in the first round of the presidential election just a week earlier.

• The PSD was on course to capture around 22% of the vote according to the preliminary count of more than 99% of votes. The far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) is poised to take second place, with 18% of the vote. The other far-right parties SOS and POT can now be sure of making it past the 5% electoral threshold.
• While the PSD will likely be able to renew its mandate as the leading force in the governing coalition, the momentum behind far-right political parties remains intact. Furthermore, coalition talks may prove more complicated and the PSD may need to reach out to more potential partners.
• The parliamentary election was the second leg of Romania's three-stage marathon of polls, with Romanians set to cast their ballots in the presidential run-off this coming weekend. In the meantime, the Constitutional Court delayed its decision on whether to accept first-round results until today (15:00GMT/17:00EET) amid suspicions of fraud.
• The potential annulment of the first round of the presidential race or a different result of the vote recount ordered by the top court could have the unintended consequence of undermining the legitimacy of the election. Runner-up Elena Lasconi edged ahead of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu by just over 2,000 votes, which makes a change in the order of candidates fairly realistic.