Presidential elections begin in Romania

The presidential elections began on Sunday morning in Romania, over 18 million eligible voters are expected to turn to polls to elect a new president for the next five-year term, Xinhua reported.
   A number of 12 candidates entered the race for the state's top position.
   The incumbent President Traian Basescu is running for a second term, with the backing of the Liberal Democratic Party. The main political parties have nominated their leaders for the presidential race: Mircea Geoana runs on behalf of the Social Democratic Party; Crin Antonescu -- for the National Liberal Party; Corneliu Vadim Tudor -- for the Greater Romania Party; Kelemen Hunor -- for the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania and Gigi Becali -- for the Christian Democratic New Generation Party, while Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu runs as an independent.
   The best-ranked candidates in the opinion polls are Basescu, Geoana and Antonescu.
   Under the Constitution, the President is elected for a 5-year term, renewable once; two successive terms are allowed.
   Romania has been in a political gridlock since mid-October, when its democrat liberal government was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament, the first in the 20 years after the fall of the communist regime.
   President Traian Basescu failed to win Parliament support for a new prime minister and the country will likely not to have a legitimate government in place before the election runoff scheduled for December 6.