Romania’s main opposition scores best in parliamentary polls: Exit polls

Bucharest, Dec 7 : Romania’s main opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD) is likely to win the most votes in the country’s quadrennial parliamentary election, according to a surprising exit poll jointly launched by poll agencies CURS and Avangarde as voting ended at 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT).
The CURS-Avangarde exit poll on Sunday showed that PSD would likely garner 30.6 percent and 30.5 percent of the votes, respectively, in the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, over one percentage point more than its main rival — the ruling National Liberal Party (PNL), Xinhua news agency reported.
The PNL was in the forefront of most polls before the election, with 3-5 percentage points higher than its opponent PSD.
According to the exit poll, PNL received 29.1 per cent and 29 per cent of the votes in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, respectively, followed by the USR-PLUS Alliance with 16.4 and 15.9 per cent. Other parties, which may enter the new parliament, include the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, the Alliance for Unity of Romanians, the PRO Romania Social Liberal and the People’s Movement Party.
Under special protection measures, Romania held the parliamentary election on Sunday amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with a total of 7,136 candidates competing for seats in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In order to enter the parliament, the parties must obtain over 5 per cent of the national votes or over 20 per cent of the votes in at least four constituencies.
There are 465 seats in the current parliament — 136 in the Senate and 329 in the Chamber of Deputies.