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Presidential runoff begins in Romania

The winner will take the presidential office for five years

BUCHAREST, November 16. /TASS/. A presidential runoff began in Romania on Sunday. Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ponta competes with Klaus Iohannis, mayor of Sibiu and the president of the National Liberal Party.

The winner will take the presidential office for five years.

Romania's Central Election Bureau said for 18.3 electors were open 18,800 polling stations, where 294 are located abroad. Exit polls will be published as the polling stations are closed at 9 p.m. local time.

At the election two weeks earlier, Ponta received 40.44% of the votes, and Iohannis - 30.37%. On the eve of the runoff, Romania’s leading social studies centres forecasted the prime minister will win with the difference of 8-11%. The trust for the social studies centres is rather high in Romania, as the exit polls results they published after the election two weeks earlier were similar to reports from Central Election Bureau.

The voter turnout at the presidential polls two weeks earlier reached 52.56%.

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