Romania’s former prime minister Emil Boc (PDL) will be returning as mayor of the city of Cluj-Napoca, after winning 40.03% of the ballot, while his rival Marius Nicoara (USL) got 38.97%, according to the final results announced by the city’s election bureau.
A parallel ballot count by Boc’s party earlier credited him with 53,713 votes, compared with Nicoara’s 52,205 votes.
Boc, who was mayor of Cluj-Napoca before resigning to take over as prime minister in 2008, gained 53,674 votes, while Nicoara got 52,251 votes. The total number of valid votes was 134,058.
The governing Social Liberal Union, which came to power about a month ago, replacing the Democratic Liberal Party, gained more than half the mayor, county and local councilor seats across the country.
Romanians voted Sunday to elect over 3,000 mayor positions, 41 county council presidencies, and over 40,000 local councilor posts in the first election that will not be followed by a run-off vote between the top two candidates if neither garners an absolute majority of votes (50% plus one).