Iohannis delivers surprise result in Romania poll

Romanian voters delivered an upset to Victor Ponta, prime minister, on Sunday night, denying him victory in presidential elections and electing Klaus Iohannis, a centre-right mayor who campaigned on winning western investment.

Mr Ponta conceded defeat shortly after 11pm local time following exit polls that showed Mr Iohannis, an ethnic German and protestant mayor of Sibiu, had staged a late surge and won a narrow majority.

But final results released on Monday showed Mr Iohannis won comfortably with 54.7 percent of the vote compared to Mr Ponta's 45.3 percent.

The scale of his victory appeared to take Mr Iohannis, who trailed the prime minister by 10 per cent in the first round vote, by surprise:

"Everything went phenomenally," he said in a televised speech.

"The people are always right. I called Mr Iohannis and congratulated him on his victory," Mr Ponta told reporters, adding: "My colleagues and I will do our duty towards the country as long as we are in public office."

More than 300,000 votes cast by Romanians living abroad, were decisively in Mr Iohannis' favour when the official count was completed on Monday morning. The government had been criticised for long delays in voting at its foreign embassies in a first-round run-off vote on November 2. In that poll 160,000 Romanians voted abroad, with a strong majority breaking for opposition candidates.

"The big trend was a massive increase in participation among young people and the diaspora, and this helped Iohannis to victory," said Radu Magdin, chief executive of Smartlink, a political consultancy.

Analysts had predicted a comfortable win for Mr Ponta, the 42-year-old Social Democrat, following a strong performance in the first round and a well-financed campaign. But the prime minister appeared to have been damaged by the complaints of voting irregularities abroad and a bruising electoral battle that questioned his commitment to European values and to rooting out corruption.

Mr Iohannis, a 55-year-old physics teacher, has been mayor of the tourist city of Sibiu in Transylvania since 2000. An ethnic German and member of a Lutheran evangelical church, Mr Iohannis is an unusual politician in the largely Romanian orthodox country of 20m.

Much of the campaign focused on how to increase living standards in the EU's second-poorest country, which is due to complete a €4bn IMF loan programme in January. The government had frozen talks with the fund on a possible renewal of the programme until after the election campaign, during which Mr Ponta promised to raise incomes and cut taxes.

The candidates also committed themselves to combating corruption and reinforcing Romania's pro-EU orientation in televised debates, amid concerns about increasing Russian influence in the region. Both contenders moved to distance themselves from what they described as worrying trends in neighbouring Hungary, where Viktor Orban, prime minister, has drawn criticism for his illiberal reforms.

"My orientation is west," said Mr Iohannis, adding: "What is happening in Hungary now, that is not democracy going in the right direction."

Romania is significantly less reliant on Russian gas than many of its neighbours, thanks to a diverse domestic energy supply and successful drilling for oil in the Black Sea.

But corruption allegations also dominated the campaign - Mr Ponta's mentor, Adrian Nastase, a former prime minister, was imprisoned in 2012 for improperly raising funds. The prime minister faced official investigations this year alleging that officials from his own party had profited from an education-software purchase scheme.

"Some feared that a Ponta election would mean less efforts to convict corrupt officials. Over 1,000 officials have been prosecuted in recent years, including former MPs and ministers," said Paul Ivan, a researcher at the European Policy Centre.

Once Mr Iohannis' is confirmed as president he will have to govern jointly with Mr Ponta's Social Democratic party, the largest grouping in the parliament. Under the semi-presidential system, the president will be responsible for foreign and defence policy and will control appointments of prosecutors and the judiciary.

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