After Romanians went to polls to help their country emerge from a political and economic crisis, the election becomes overshadowed by allegations of vote fraud.

The complaints of vote fraud were lodged by leading political parties, including the center-left Social Democrats (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the center-right Democrat-Liberals (PD-L).

Meanwhile, certain media outlets reported instances of electoral fraud.

The reports come while the controversial presidential election failed to produce a winner and a runoff vote pitting center-right incumbent Traian Basescu against Social Democrat Mircea Geoana is scheduled to be held on December 6.

One report put Basescu's votes at 34.1 percent, compared to 30.9 percent for Geoana while another report said Basescu won 32.8 percent, compared to 31.7 percent for Geoana.

Turnout from the 18 million eligible voters stood at 53.52 percent — lower than that of the 2004 presidential election.

In what heightened concerns about vote fraud, Romanian police arrested a number of voters who were caught attempting to photograph their marked ballots with mobile phones.

The move is common in vote buying, in which the voter later presents the photo as proof of his vote for the proper candidate.

There were also other reports of massive voter-buying operations by all three major parties in the country.

While Romanian police had set up checkpoints across the country to block buses carrying "election tourists," many cars were stopped as they were to ferry paid-off voters to the polls.

Such reports of vote fraud come as under Romanian law people are not restricted to voting in their own home district. Special booths were installed in most polling stations to allow voting by people who are away from home.

CS/HGH