In Romania, the second, deciding round of the country’s presidential elections has developed into a neck-and-neck race. Both the incumbent centre-right President Traian Basescu and the Social Democrat candidate, Mircea Geoana, have claimed victory.

The first opinion surveys after voting ended suggested a victory for Mr Geoana. He is thought to have claimed one to two percent more votes than his opponent.

President Traian Basescu narrowly won the first round of voting two weeks ago. However Mr Geoana now has the support of Romania's third largest party, the National Liberal Party (PNL), and will probably profit from the support of its leader, Crin Antonescu, who lost in the first round.

Whoever does win the election will be faced with enormous challenges: Romania is by far the European Union's poorest country and is in the grip of a severe recession. Romanians earn just 46 percent of the EU average and the currency is down 4.7 percent on the euro so far this year. Romania is also plagued by corruption and was ranked last among EU countries by Transparency International.

A caretaker government has been running the country since October and a 20-billion euro bailout plan agreed with the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank in March has been put on hold until a new government takes office and presents a 2010 budget. The loan is conditional on massive public spending cuts and whoever wins the presidency may have to cut up to around 150,000 public service jobs.