Romania holds referendum to impeach President

Romanians has gone to the polls to decide whether to impeach their president, Traian Basescu, bringing to a head weeks of political warring that has mired the young democracy.

Polling stations opened at 04:00 GMT on Sunday. Around 18.3 million people are eligible to vote, including large diasporas in Spain and Italy.

The opening hours have been extended and a number of additional polling stations have been set up along the Black Sea coast to facilitate voting for holidaymakers and rural populations in a country where voter fatigue is high.

Opinion polls show two-thirds of Romanians are expected to vote in favour of impeaching Basescu, once one of the country's most popular politicians whose ratings plummeted amid austerity cuts in 2010.

In case turnout is lower than 50 per cent, the referendum will be declared invalid and Basescu, suspended by parliament earlier this month, will be reinstated and continue his mandate, which ends in 2014.

Basescu has already been suspended by parliament in a series of moves that have caused alarm among Romania's EU partners.

The centre-left government accuses Basescu of exceeding his authority and of meddling in government affairs.

Romania has been gripped by a bitter conflict between the conservative president and the Social-Liberal Union (USL) of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, which took power in May and quickly moved to oust Basescu.

Basescu denies the accusations and has urged a boycott of Sunday's referendum.

If the yes vote triumphs, and Basescu is permanently removed from power, Romania will have to organise a fresh presidential election.

The referendum comes after weeks of contentious moves by the government to manipulate Romania's political institutions, which led to sharp warnings from Brussels and the United States that democracy was being eroded.

Ponta's government removed opposition parliamentary speakers, sacked an ombudsman and clipped the powers of the constitutional court.

The European Commission said the dramas "raise serious doubts" about Romania's understanding of the rule of law but nevertheless praised efforts to fight graft by the anti-corruption prosecutor's office and other institutions.

Last week analysts said civil society groups had been forgotten in the political fray and needed to be involved to help get the derailed political process back on track.