Centrist Iohannis secures second term as Romania president

Romania’s incumbent President Klaus Iohannis has won a presidential runoff vote, securing a second five-year term in office.

With 95 percent of the ballots counted on Monday, pro-Europe Iohannis secured slightly over 63 percent of the ballets cast in the runoff held a day earlier, while his challenger former prime minister Viorica Dancila — from the PSD Social Democrat (PSD) Party — gained the remaining 37 percent.

A total of 18.2 million Romanians were eligible to vote, with the turnout reported to be about 50 percent — the lowest since the fall of Communism three decades ago.

“The winner today is modern Romania, European Romania, the normal Romania,” said the centrist leader. “I promise to be a president for all Romanians.”

Iohannis had campaigned on a pledge to restart a judicial reform slowed down by successive PSD governments, scaring voters that a victory for Dancila would pose a threat to the nation’s democratic values and drawing criticism from the European Union.

Iohannis, on the other hand, has been credited with trying to protect the “rule of law," in particular by challenging attempts to limit judges’ independence.

Iohannis — whose power as president includes nominating the prime minister, challenging laws in the Constitutional Court and appointing some chief prosecutors —is expected to appoint anti-graft prosecutors serious in efforts to uproot corruption.

His victory is likely to promote his center-right National Liberal Party (PNL) before parliamentary elections in 2020.

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