Liviu Dragnea was elected interim president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), defeating the current Labor Minister Rovana Plumb.

Dragnea received 65 votes “for” and 18 “against”, according to PSD sources, reports local Mediafax. He announced his official candidacy for the party leadership only one day before the Party’s Executive Committee meeting.

After yesterday’s victory, Dragnea announced that PSD will organize national congress of the party in November which will elect a new permanent executive team.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned from his position as president of the Social Democratic Party on July 12. Ponta decided to abandon the PSD leadership, because of the criminal file he has at the National Anticorruption Directorate. He named Rovana Plumb as interim PSD president and she was also voted by the party’s Permanent Bureau, the party’s executive structure. However, PSD’s Executive Committee, which includes all of the party’s local leaders, changed that decision on July 22, as they favor Dragnea.

Liviu Dragnea has served as executive president of PSD, the party’s second most powerful leader until May 2015, when a court in Romania sentenced him to one year parole for electoral fraud at the 2012 referendum. At that point, Dragnea also withdrew from his position as Regional Development and Administration Minister in Victor Ponta’s cabinet.

editor@romania-insider.com