Romania's Social Democrat wins most in local elections

 Romania's Social Democrats won 52.63 percent of mayoralties and also the largest number of elected seats in county and local councils, showed the final results released late Friday by the Central Electoral Bureau.

According to the final results of last Sunday's elections, Social Democrats'candidates won 1,677 mayoral races, as well as 579 seats, or 40.32 percent, in county councils and 16,648 positions, or 41.39 percent, in local councils.

It is worth mentioning that the Social Democrats' candidate Gabriela Firea secured around 42.97 percent of votes and became the first Social-Democrat and also the first woman to be the mayor of Bucharest, which is seen traditionally as a stronghold for the right-wing parties. The Social Democratic Party also won all the six districts in the capital city.

The Social Democrats were followed by the National Liberal Party, which has 1,081 mayors, 496 seats in county councils and 13,193 positions in local councils.

The Hungarian Democrat Union of Romania finished third, managing to get 195 mayor seats, 95 and 2,284 seats in county and local councils respectively, while the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats got 64 mayoralties, 76 county councilors and 2,504 local councilors.

As many as 48.27 percent of some 18 million voters cast their votes in Romania's local elections last Sunday.

Mayors were elected in a single round, with the candidate obtaining the highest number of votes declared the winner. Local and county councilors are elected based on party lists.

The local elections are widely regarded as a litmus test of parliamentary elections later this year and the victory of the Social Democrats put them in a strong position

xinhua