BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania's centrist president will face a socialist former foreign minister in a Dec. 6 runoff election, partial results showed Monday, in a race key to helping the country emerge from a political and economic crisis.

President Traian Basescu received 32.8 per cent of the vote, while Mircea Geoana won 29.8 per cent, election authorities said in first official results based on around 74 per cent of the vote counted. Conservative opposition leader Crin Antonescu polled 20.3 per cent, finishing third in a field of 12 candidates.

Romania's government collapsed last month amid squabbling between the two-party coalition, and the International Monetary Fund has delayed access to a euro1.5 billion (US$2 billion) IMF bailout loan while the country struggles to set up a new government.

The president is key to reviving the government because he nominates a prime minister, who Parliament must then approve and who would be responsible for forming a new coalition.

Reports of possible fraud in Sunday's election emerged as far more people than normal cast ballots at 3,500 special voting centers that were set up for Romanians who need to vote outside their area of residence because they are traveling.

The Electoral Committee said more than 430,000 people voted at such locations, and witnesses claimed some were being bused there after already having cast ballots elsewhere.

Authorities said two people were arrested in the southern city of Giurgiu for trying to buy votes. There were widespread reports throughout Romania about people being offered incentives -- from sugar and oil to blankets and flowers in exchange for votes.

Basescu and Geoana called the election one of the most important votes in Romania since 1989 and the fall of communism.

Basescu, who no longer belongs to a political party because of constitutional requirements, has lost some public support because of his stormy relationship with Parliament and the country's deep economic crisis. Geoana, who heads the left-leaning Social Democrats and is the leader of the Senate, favors a broad coalition government, while Basescu wants to form a government from the Democratic Liberal party he used to lead.

Romania's economy, already in a deep recession, is expected to shrink about 8.5 per cent this year. The country needs the IMF loan to pay state salaries and pensions, but is unlikely to get it this year. That would force 1.3 million state workers to take eight days of unpaid leave in 2009. Unemployment in Romania, one of Europe's poorest countries, already stands at 7.1 per cent, up 3 per cent in the last year.

Voters also took part in a binding referendum Sunday asking if they want to reduce the number of lawmakers in Parliament and abolish one of its two houses. Basescu, who called the referendum, wants a one-chamber Parliament with a maximum of 300 lawmakers, down from the current 471.

Critics say a smaller parliament would lead to the president having too much power. Partial results showed Romanians overwhelmingly voting to reduce the number of lawmakers and remove one chamber. Parliament and the president now share power equally.