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Leftist party in Romania makes gains in local elections

Leftist party in Romania makes gains in local elections | iNFOnews.ca
Gabriele Firea holds roses after the press statement that followed the release of exit polls in the local elections indicating she's the new mayor of the Romanian capital in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, June 5, 2016. Three exit polls showed that Firea, a former TV journalist and member of the center-left Social Democratic Party easily won the post of Bucharest mayor scoring about 41 percent of the vote. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

BUCHAREST, Romania – Election results show Romania’s main leftist party made gains and took all the seats in Bucharest in local elections that were overshadowed by concerns about graft.

Preliminary results published by election authorities Monday show that that Gabriela Firea, a former TV journalist and member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party, won the post of Bucharest mayor, receiving about 44 per cent of the vote. The party also won all six seats for district mayor in the capital.

With 87.5 per cent of the vote counted, the Social Democratic Party was winning about 39.2 per cent of the overall vote nationwide, followed by the Liberal Party, which was polling about 33 per cent.

The Social Democrats resigned from government in November after street protests following a deadly nightclub fire that raised corruption concerns. Romania now has a government of technocrats.

In other results, the mayors of Brasov and Craiova, who have been indicted for taking kickbacks, both won re-election. The mayor of Baia Mare, jailed on corruption charges, was also easily re-elected despite being in jail.

A total of 12 candidates who won in the capitals of Romania’s 41 counties and seats for Bucharest’s six district mayors are being probed or have been indicted for corruption.

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