On June 15th, residents of Bucharest headed to the polls for the second round of the local run-off elections. According to exit polls, Bucharest's newest Mayor will be leftist candidate Sorin Oprescu, who will lead the city for the next four years.
The first round of local elections were held across Romania on June 1st where residents of major cities voted for mayors, municipal and district councilors and chairpersons of district councils. None of the seven Bucharest mayoral candidates gathered a majority vote so a run-off election was called for the two forerunners.
On the 15th, voters were faced with a choice between Liberal-Democrat Vasile Blaga, whose party backs President Traian Basescu, and independent Sorin Oprescu.
While running officially as an independent, Oprescu had just recently resigned from the opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD). Because of this, it is alleged many PSD party members have backed Oprescu in the hopes that his election will help their party regain strength in the run up to this year's parliamentary elections. |