Some 18 million Romanian voters are invited to choose their leader for the next five years in a second round of presidential elections on Sunday, which sees incumbent head of state Traian Basescu facing Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Mircea Geoana at the end of a tight race with major ups and downs over the past two weeks.

Polls open at 7.00 in the morning and are due to close at 9 p.m., when exit polls are also set to be announced by several TV stations.

In the first round of the presidential elections on November 22, Traian Basescu got 32.44% of the votes, followed by Mircea Geoana with 31.15% and Liberal candidate Crin Antonescu with 20.02%. Some 53% of Romanian voters showed up to cast their ballot on November 22.

Who are the two candidates for the top job in the country for the next five years:

Traian Basescu: Born 1951. He won his first term as President of Romania in the 2004 presidential and general elections, after his ally, Theodor Stolojan, opted to withdraw his presidential candidacy. He had a first term marked by tensions between him and his party, the Democratic Liberals, on one hand, and the Liberal partners in the coalition government, on the other hand. He was also involved in major disputes with the Parliament and survived a referendum to have him dismissed in 2007. Before 2004, he served as Mayor of Bucharest. Mircea Geoana: Born 1958. Serving serves as President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) since 2005. For the past years he has had to face opposition of influential leaders of his own party, but managed to group the PSD to support his presidential candidacy. He had served as Romania's Ambassador to Washington in the late nineties and then as Foreign minister in the early 2000's. He now serves as speaker of the Senate.

Prior to the first round of elections, the campaign of the originally