A polling station in Bucharest, Romania on December 11, 2016 | Andrei Pungovschi/AFP via Getty Images Romania’s Social Democrats on track for landslide election win A year after the PSD’s Victor Ponta was ousted as PM by popular protests, the party is poised to take back power.

Romania's Social Democrats (PSD) won a landslide win in parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to preliminary results, which could enable them to take over from the year-old technocratic government of Prime Minister Dacian Cioloş.

With just over 80 percent of votes counted, PSD won 46.5 percent in Romania's Senate and 46.3 percent in the Chamber of Deputies. This will allow the party to form a coalition with one of Romania's smaller parties and return to power in Europe's second-poorest nation a year after the PSD's Victor Ponta was ousted as prime minister following public protests.

Liviu Dragnea, the current PSD leader, said immediately after exit poll data was released that his party would go for an alliance with ALDE, a party run by Senate leader and former premier Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. ALDE secured just under 6 percent of votes for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.

President Klaus Iohannis' Liberal party (PNL) came a distant second with 20.5 percent of votes for the Senate and 20.1 for the Chamber. The PNL and the Bucharest-based anti-corruption movement Union Save Romania had hoped to combine forces to keep Cioloş in power.

“It’s not that PSD won and PNL lost today. Romanians won today,” Dragnea told reporters soon after polls closed.

At least 29 of the 588 MPs elected in 2012 have been found guilty of criminal conduct or have been investigated by the National Anticorruption Directorate.

“The result, if confirmed, will be a historic one,” said Dragnea, who declined to say who the PSD would propose as prime minister.

Iohannis has vowed to stop anyone with a criminal record from becoming prime minister, which would rule out Dragnea, who has a two-year suspended jail sentence for attempting to rig a referendum in 2012.

At least 29 of the 588 MPs elected in 2012 have been found guilty of criminal conduct or have been investigated by the National Anticorruption Directorate, according to the Romanian Institute for Public Policies. When the PSD prevailed in local elections in June, Dragnea said Romanians had to decide "if they prefer to have running water" or put politicians "in handcuffs."

One alternative PSD contender for the premiership is Vasile Dîncu, a minister in the current interim government led by Cioloş.

The anti-corruption Union Save Romania hailed its projected 9.2 percent result — which would make it the third biggest party — as a strong outcome given that it was only founded in February this year. Party leader Nicușor Dan, who wants the party to act as an anti-corruption watchdog in parliament, called it a victory for democracy in Romania.

"Today's vote is the beginning,” said Dan. "We'll fight against illegality, we'll fight against abuse of authority, we'll fight against the looting of public money. We will be what has not existed before: a partner for citizens in their relation with Romanian public authorities.”

The PSD's campaign promises included a hike in the minimum wage and cuts to income taxes and public administration fees. If implemented, such moves would endanger EU-mandated budget deficit targets and potentially jeopardize economic growth which, at 5 percent this year, is the highest in Europe, according to IMF projections.

Unlike many recent elections around Europe, none of the parties competing in Romania campaigned on an openly Euroskeptic platform and Dragnea immediately promised that under PSD leadership, the country would respect all of its international commitments.

However, the PSD's campaign did promote nationalist values and rejected foreign candidates for parliament, such as the French-born businesswoman Clotilde Armand of USR.

“Today, Romanians voted to bring Romanian villages back to life and for us to feed ourselves with the fruits of our land, not low-quality imports,” Dragnea said on Sunday night. "This vote shows that Romanians want to feel at home in their country, they want Romania to be a better home for all its citizens, not just for some.”