People have started voting in parliamentary elections in the Southeast European country of Romania.
Polling stations opened on Sunday at 07:00 local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 21:00. Nearly 19 million Romanians are eligible to take part in the elections.
Pre-election opinion polls indicated that 40 to 44 percent of voters would be in favor of handing power back to the leftist Social Democrats (PSD) Party.
The center-rightist National Liberal (PNL) Party is projected to garner about 18 to 27 percent of the votes and would be in second place. The new Save Romania Union (USR) Party is expected to collect approximately between eight and 19 percent of the votes.
The PSD has pledged to address the poor living standards in Romania.
The PSD was ousted from the government just over a year ago with the resignation of Prime Minister Victor Ponta on November 4, 2015 following a deadly fire at a nightclub and ensuing large-scale street protests. The fire, which killed 64 people in October that year, was blamed on corrupt officials who allegedly failed to enact safety regulations.
Romania joined the European Union (EU) 10 years ago. It is the bloc’s second poorest member state.
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