Leftists hope for comeback as Romanians vote
By Radu-Sorin Marinas and Luiza Ilie BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanians looked likely to hand back power to the leftist Social Democrats (PSD) at elections on Sunday, as polls suggested voters were shrugging off concerns about corruption and warming to promises of more social spending. The party is seeking re-election a year after the coalition it led stepped down amid street protests triggered by a deadly nightclub fire. Demonstrations against inept officials and graft have since faded and PSD leader Liviu Dragnea has promised reforms. "I expect the next government to be fair to us people and work for us, so that we can earn a little more and live better," said pensioner Ana Constantinescu in Bucharest's fifth district. Mostly older voters milled around the polling station near blocks of drab, communist-era apartment buildings. Early figures showed around 11 percent of the electorate had turned out for the parliamentary election by 0930 GMT - twice the number seen at the same point in the last vote in 2012. PSD leader Dragnea was convicted of electoral fraud in April for trying to rig a 2012 referendum and given a two-year suspended jail sentence. He has regularly denied the charge. His campaign in the run-up to Sunday's vote promised to address low living standards in much of Romania, one of the European Union's poorest and least modernised members. Opinion polls show the leftists could garner 40 to 44 percent in the vote, followed by their centre-right rivals National Liberal Party (PNL) with about 18 to 27 percent. The new Save Romania Union (USR) party is expected to get somewhere between 8 and 19 percent. Most parties are largely pro-EU - in contrast to growing populist hostility to the bloc in other member states, including neighbouring Bulgaria where a pro-Russian candidate won the presidency last month. "Romanian public opinion is one of the most pro-European states, because of a total lack of confidence in domestic institutions and politicians," said Sergiu Miscoiu, political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj. "Salvation comes from abroad, and western Europe has a standard of organization and prosperity Romanians still cannot reach," he said. "Outside of a very small audience, public euroscepticism wouldn't benefit any party." Forming a government could be complicated if the PSD fails to win an outright majority, as expected, and if centrist and centre-right groupings can build a competing coalition, observers say. Much could depend on the fortunes of the Save Romania Union, a political newcomer which has promised to fight corruption and bring in sweeping reforms. A technocrat government, led by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and limited to a one-year term, took over after the resignation of the PSD-led coalition. (Editing by Hugh Lawson and Andrew Heavens)
