Brussels, 29/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the European Commission confirmed that it would prefer to await the official results of the first round of presidential elections which took place in Romania at the weekend, and the reports of the independent observers, before commenting on any possible irregularities. "At this stage, it is too soon to comment on the elections, because we have not yet had the end results or the reports of the observers" who monitored this first round of presidential elections, as well as the legislative elections which were also held on Sunday, said the spokesperson for European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, on Monday.
Romania's largest civil rights defence association, Pro Democratia, said on Monday that "many instances of fraud" had been recorded and that as a result, it would withdraw its observers. "We have decided to withdraw our observers from the second round of the elections in protest at the shortcomings of the Romanian electoral system", said the president of the association, Cristian Parvulescu. The opposition alliance "Justice and Truth" (DA) also spoke out against irregularities "in almost every region".
According to the partial results published on Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and his Social Democrat Party won both elections. The second round of presidential elections, which will pit Adrian Nastase against the Mayor of Bucharest, Traian Basescu (who came out in second place on Monday afternoon) will take place on 12 December. On Monday, Mr Basescu appealed to Mr Nastase to ensure that the votes were counted correctly. "Romania is at a crossroads", he said, underlining that "suspicion of fraud could cost the country its objectives of European integration".