BUCHAREST, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian Chamber of Deputies elected Marcel Ciolacu, legislator of the ruling Social Democratic Party, as the new speaker on Wednesday to fill the vacant position left by predecessor Liviu Dragnea, sentenced to jail two days ago.
A total of three candidates had competed for the position. Ciolacu won 172 votes, much more than his two competitors who got 100 and 20 votes respectively.
The other two candidates were Kelemen Hunor of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, and Raluca Turcan, jointly proposed by the three most important oppositions in the chamber, the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union and the People's Movement Party.
This is the first contest between the main ruling party and the opposition party in the national parliament after the European Parliament elections on Sunday when the ruling party lost to the oppositions.
It is considered symbolic by the local political analysts. On one hand, the main opposition party this time launched the joint candidate for the first time. On the other hand, the majority position of the ruling party in the parliament is still unshakable for the time being.
The Social Democrats had been hit hard in recent days. In the European Parliament elections, the party's votes were cut in half compared to that of the national parliament elections two and a half years ago, falling behind the opposition National Liberal Party. On Monday, the party's national leader Dragnea was definitively sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment with execution.
