Romanian PM resigns after failure to secure most seats in parliamentary

Source: Xinhua| 2020-12-08 12:27:46|Editor: huaxia

BUCHAREST, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban announced his resignation late Monday, after the ruling National Liberal Party (PNL) he leads failed to achieve its goal of scoring the best in Sunday's parliamentary election.

President Klaus Iohannis accepted Orban's resignation and appointed Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca as interim prime minister.

Orban's resignation is generally seen as clearing the way for his party to negotiate a future ruling alliance with other political parties.

"The decision I took has a very precise objective...the negotiations to follow must lead to a government formed by the center-right political formations to clearly support Romania's Euro-Atlantic orientation," Orban said in a televised statement after announcing his resignation.

With over 96 percent votes counted, the Social Democrat Party leads the National Liberals by a decisive 5 percentage points, according to the latest partial results announced by Romania's Central Electoral Office Monday evening.

The results show that the National Liberals have around 25 percent of votes, only next to the Soical Democrats, who have secured about 30 percent. The USR-PLUS Alliance was placed the third with some 15 percent of votes.

For the time being, it is too early for either of the top rivals to call a victory. Orban has decided to talk about forming a new coalition with other future parliamentary parties in the post-election period to secure the ruling, while the USR-PLUS Alliance, an indispensable option for Orban, has repeatedly emphasized that it is impossible to participate in a cabinet he leads.

Soon after Orban announced his resignation, the USR-PLUS Alliance said that it would pick Dacian Ciolos, one of the two co-chairs of the alliance and former prime minister serving between 2015 and 2017, as its prime minister for a future coalition government.

Romania held the parliamentary election on Sunday, with a total of 7,136 candidates competing for about 329 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 136 seats in the Senate.

According to the latest partial results released by the Central Electoral Bureau, the Social Democratic Party has won the parliamentary election with 30.13 percent of the votes cast for the Senate and 29.69 percent for the Chamber of Deputies.

The PNL came second by garnering 25.58 percent and 25.18 percent, respectively, for the two chambers of the parliament. Other parties to enter the new parliament include the USR-PLUS Alliance with 15.24 and 14.75 percent, the Alliance for Unity of Romanians with 8.77 and 8.69 percent, as well as the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, with 6.13 and 5.98 percent.

The partial results show that no party is likely to win more than 50 percent of the votes to hold the majority in the future parliament. Thus, the future government will almost certainly be a coalition.

Under Romania's law, Orban's cabinet will remain in office for at most 45 days as a caretaker administration led by Ciuca, before it is replaced by a new government. Enditem

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