Romanian President Traian Basescu could see his recent election victory evaporate. The country's Constitutional Court has ruled that 138,000 votes cast in Sunday's election must be recounted.

Mr Basescu won the election by a slim margin of just 70,000 votes from Social Democrat Mircea Geoana. The court ruling comes in response to complaints by the opposition of large-scale electoral fraud. The social democrats see it as suspicious that such a large number of votes were declared invalid.

Traian Basescu's narrow victory was largely due to his support among labourers and the rural population. Romania is not faring well economically and the president has promised to modernise the country and to tackle corruption.