By Felix Nkambeh Tih
ANKARA
Klaus Iohannis, the Christian Liberal Alliance's candidate, won the Romanian runoff presidential election on Sunday, defeating Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who was supported by his Social Democratic Party.
According to official results released on Monday by the Central Electoral Bureau, the Christian Liberal Alliance won 54.50 percent and the Social Democratic Party 45.49 percent of the votes. .
"We won! Romanians, you were heroes today. More than 6.2 million votes chose me as your president, thank you very much," Klaus Iohannis, 55 - from Romania's German minority - posted on his Facebook account on Sunday night.
Ponta, a Social Democrat and favorite to win in this election, told reporters that, "I called Iohannis and I congratulated him for his victory. We are a democratic country and the people are always right."
The losing candidate promised to reduce the budget deficit and had a lead of almost 10 percent in the first round of the presidential elections on Nov. 2.
He had led opinion polls during the electoral campaign and many observers believed he would win the runoff.
Ponta, 42, was prime minister since May 2012 and leader of the Social Democratic Party since 2010. He promised political stability in Romania - the EU's second-poorest state after Bulgaria.
Klaus Werner Iohannis became the leader of the National Liberal Party in 2014, after having served as leader of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania from 2002 to 2013.
During the campaign, Iohannis promised to strengthen the independence of the judicial system. He will replace Traian Basescu as president who cannot stand for re-election after serving two terms.
In August 2014, Iohannis was selected as the presidential candidate for the Christian Liberal Alliance.
The alliance was founded in July 2014 by the National Liberal Party and Democratic Liberal Party, prior to the November 2014 presidential election.
Iohannis entered politics in 2000 when he was first elected as mayor of the predominantly German-speaking city of Sibiu, located in the center of Romania.
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