Interim President Ion Iliescu, a former Communist, appeared headed for a landslide victory Monday after Romania's first free elections in 53 years, but opponents alleged fraud.
The first official returns showed Iliescu with an overwhelming lead in the presidential race. His National Salvation Front appeared to be headed for victory in the parliamentary elections, which would allow him to govern without forming a coalition with the opposition.With more than 2 million ballots counted from Sunday's election, Iliescu won 89 percent to 8 percent for the National Liberal Party's candidate, Radu Campeanu, and 3 percent for Ion Ratiu of the National Peasant Party.
A West German exit poll of 14,539 voters indicated that Iliescu would win 83 percent of the votes nationwide. Campeanu was second with 11 percent, and Ratiu had 6 percent.
The chief U.S. observer of the elections said Romania had taken "a very giant step toward democracy" but that allegations of fraud must be assessed before the United States determines whether the election was free.
Gov. Garrey E. Carruthers of New Mexico urged the government to establish a freer press and set up an independent panel or allow the courts to investigate allegations of campaign and voting irregularities.
But others among the 500 foreign observers said that although there were some irregularities, they were not significant enough to alter the outcome.
The two opposition candidates alleged numerous instances of election fraud. Ratiu said Carruthers' assessment of the election would mislead the American people and President Bush.
He also said he might challenge the results in court.
The Front took power during the bloody December revolution in which Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was ousted and executed after 24 years of rule.
One of the main opposition charges against Iliescu and the Front was their refusal to relinquish control over radio, television and newsprint. The opposition argued that control of the airwaves gave the Front an unfair advantage in the campaign.
The Central Electoral Bureau estimated that at least 85 percent of Romania's 16.8 million eligible voters cast ballots for president and 506 representatives to the two-chamber Parliament.
The Front won a projected 66 percent of the vote for seats in parliament, said the exit poll, conducted by the West German polling group INFAS at the invitation of the Romanian government.
In second place was the National Liberal Party with about 10 percent of the votes, the poll said. The party representing the country's 2 million Hungarian minority had 6 percent, the Ecological Movement had 5 percent and the Peasant Party had 3.5 percent to 4 percent, according to the poll. No margin of error was given.
The projected victory for the Front would break a string of victories by centrist and conservative political parties in free elections held elsewhere in Eastern Europe following the ouster of old Communist regimes.