President Traian Basescu appeared set to remain in office as a referendum on his impeachment Sunday failed due to a low turnout, according to initial forecasts.
Though nearly 85 per cent of those who voted backed the motion to oust him, he will return to the office from which he was suspended because of the impeachment motion, dpa reported.
The CCSB polling agency estimated the turnout at just 44 per cent of the 18.3 million registered voters. More than half of the electorate were needed to make the referendum valid.
The official result is expected Monday.
Basescu has declared that he had defeated the motion to oust him from the office two years before his term was due to expire.
The leftist Prime Minister Victor Ponta's cabinet, which assumed power without elections in April, launched the impeachment procedure accusing Basescu of overstepping the legal limits of his authority.
The speed with which Ponta moved against his political foe raised concerns in the West about democratic standards in Romania, a former Communist bloc country that joined the European Union in 2007. Basescu said the impeachment was a coup. He initially campaigned for support in the referendum, but changed his mind in recent days and urged his backers to boycott it.
Basescu's popularity dramatically sagged because of austerity measures he and his allies supported in order to shore up Romania's economy.
It remains to be seen if the triumph over Ponta in the impeachment referendum will play a role in parliamentary elections in November.