**Romania’s constitutional court has ordered a recount of void votes from last weekend’s presidential election.**The opposition Social Democrat party had challenged the result of vote, alleging widespread rigging.
The court said 138,000 void ballots would be counted - well above the narrow margin of 70,000 which gave President Traian Basescu victory.
Social Democrat candidate Mircea Geoana, who lost by less than 1%, had called for a new election.
Mr Geoana’s party said it knew of 13,000 cases of multiple voting, and had received nationwide reports of bribery and vote-rigging.
Reality check
There were more than 10.4 million votes cast from among 18 million eligible voters.
“The court… decided by a majority of votes… to re-examine the annulled votes and have the Central Election Bureau recount them to establish whether there are any differences between the signed ballots and reality,” the court said in a statement reported by Reuters news agency.
After Sunday’s vote, in which both candidates declared victory, election observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said it had generally met commitments made, but urged authorities to investigate reports of irregularities.
Romania has been run by a caretaker government since October. No new prime minister can be appointed or new government formed until the president is appointed.
The presidential election is Romania’s first as a member of the European Union.