AFP - Two days after general elections in Romania, the country was still in the dark Tuesday about who would lead its next government and tackle the current economic crisis.
   
The central electoral bureau announced a narrow win for the leftist Social Democrats with 33.6 percent of the votes, fractionally more than the right-wing Liberal Democrats' 32.9 percent.
   
But the same bureau spread confusion later by allocating more parliamentary seats to the second-placed Liberal Democrats, a quirk explained by Romania's complicated electoral system.
   
The daily Adevarul had already written Tuesday of "the painful birth of a new government."
   
Meanwhile, President Traian Basescu, who is close to the Liberal Democrats, has 20 days to name a new prime minister.
   
Under Romania's constitution, the president is free to name anyone he wishes if no party wins more than 50 percent support, but Basescu has yet to announce when he will make his decision.
   
Before the election, he had already ruled out the leaders of the three parties that won the most votes, saying he would not let anyone impose a prime minister on him.
   
"In any democratic system, the winner is usually the one who governs," declared Social Democrat leader Mircea Geoana, inviting all the other parties to coalition talks.
   
But Liberal Democrat leader Emil Boc has also laid claim to the premiership, announcing that "the first choice (for a coalition partner) is liberal."
   
The Liberals of outgoing Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu are likely to be the kingmakers in upcoming negotiations to form a new government, after finishing in third place with 18 percent.
   
An alliance with them would give either the Social Democrats or the Liberal Democrats a slim majority in parliament.
   
A coalition between right-wing Liberals and Liberal Democrats would be "the most convenient and especially the most legitimate one in the eyes of the people," noted a columnist for the daily Cotidianul.
   
But the two parties have a stormy past, Tariceanu having kicked out his partner in the previous government in 2007 over private quarrels.
   
Meanwhile, the Liberals' strong post-election position has bolstered their ambitions.
   
"If there's a majority behind the Liberals' government programme and economic rescue plan, the next prime minister should be a Liberal," a top party official, Bogdan Olteanu, noted Tuesday.
   
Added political expert Cristian Parvulescu: "The Liberals will probably negotiate very hard with the Liberal Democrats, they're not likely to fall into their arms at the first call."
   
The Liberal Democrats also risk seeing Tariceanu's party go into the opposition if they fail to agree to a coalition, which however is the likeliest option, he added.
   
The fourth-place Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), which has been in every government since 1992, will probably also play a role in coalition talks.