Bucharest, 11 December 2000 (RFE/RL) - Official results from the second round of Romania's presidential election show a landslide victory for leftist leader Ion Iliescu. With more than 98 percent of the ballots counted, the central electoral bureau said today that Iliescu has won some 67 percent of the vote compared to 33 percent for ultranationalist Corneliu Vadim Tudor.
Ex-communist Iliescu said his triumph over Tudor was "a categorical rejection of extremism, xenophobia, and totalitarian temptations." He pledged to continue economic reforms and to pursue further integration into the European Union and NATO.
Iliescu's Social Democracy Party won a majority in parliamentary polls two weeks ago and will form the government.
Iliescu was Romania's first elected president after the ouster of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, and he served until 1996. Romania's outgoing right-of-center president, Emil Constantinescu, did not stand for reelection
(For more details and analysis, see "Iliescu Defeats Nationalist Tudor In Runoff For President," in Weekday Magazine.)
Ex-communist Iliescu said his triumph over Tudor was "a categorical rejection of extremism, xenophobia, and totalitarian temptations." He pledged to continue economic reforms and to pursue further integration into the European Union and NATO.
Iliescu's Social Democracy Party won a majority in parliamentary polls two weeks ago and will form the government.
Iliescu was Romania's first elected president after the ouster of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, and he served until 1996. Romania's outgoing right-of-center president, Emil Constantinescu, did not stand for reelection
(For more details and analysis, see "Iliescu Defeats Nationalist Tudor In Runoff For President," in Weekday Magazine.)