(AFP) - Romanians go the polls Sunday in their sixth general election with centrist Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu fighting for his political life amid a twin challenge from both ends of the political spectrum.
   
Opinion polls show the Liberal party leader, who led the former hard-line communist state into the European Union last year, is lagging well behind the leftist Social Democrats and the right-wing Liberal Democrats.
   
But even if he emerges as the surprise winner, Tariceanu's four-year rule at the head of an often shaky two-party coalition still looks doomed with his now arch rival President Traian Basescu having already ruled out his one-time ally staying in office.
   
After enjoying steady growth rates in recent years, the onset of the global economic crisis has led to disillusionment among voters towards Tariceanu who has also struggled to contain union discontent.
   
Under the terms of Romania's constitution, drawn up after the downfall and subsequent execution of the late Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, the task of selecting a prime minister is the prerogative of the president.
   
Basescu has so far been cool on the leaders of all the main parties,  publicly ruling out working with Tariceanu again or allowing Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana to assume the premiership.
   
But while he is seen as closest to the Liberal Democrats, he also shown little enthusiasm for its leader, former prime minister Teodor Stolojan, who he says is "not the only solution" in his party for the premiership.
   
"Nobody shall impose a prime minister on me," said Basescu.
   
Tariceanu has spent the campaign highlighting his government's economic record and promising cash injections of around 19 billion euros into sectors feeling the pinch from the downturn.
   
The government has said it expects 29,000 people to lose their jobs by March 2009 while some analysts have warned that the country could fall into recession next year after experiencing growth rates of nearly nine percent in the first six months of the year.
   
Alarm bells have been ringing ever louder in recent weeks, with automaker Dacia, part of the Renault group, announcing in early November that it would briefly halt production due to falling sales.
   
Steel giant Arcelor Mittal also announced a two-month production stoppage at its factory in southeastern Romania, due to a drop in orders.
   
Tariceanu has also had to contend with growing union unrest, and was severely embarrassed when parliament recently voted through a controversial 50-percent salary increase for teachers against the government's will.
   
The Social Democrats have said their more leftist agenda offers the best protection as times get tougher, with Geoana saying his party was "the best equipped to lead the country during this period" of crisis.
   
A major worry is that Romanians, generally disinterested in elections and contemptuous of their deputies, will stay away from the polls which are being held on a long holiday weekend.
   
For the first time, senators and deputies will be elected in a single round of voting, using a combination of party and candidate lists, and Romanians will not simultaneously elect a new president, his mandate having been extended in 2004 to five years instead of four.