CRITICISMS of Romanian corruption and democratic improprieties are common enough in Brussels. But on Sunday the criticisms came not from EU functionaries, but from Romanian expatriates. Thousands of Romanians living abroad had lined up outside their country's embassies in Brussels (and other European capitals such as London, pictured) to vote in their country's presidential elections, but many were turned away when the polls closed at 9 pm, and Romanian authorities refused to extend the deadline. Those shut out were furious—not just because their voices were not heard, but because they feared that back in Romania, someone might be voting in their name. "I want to make sure my identity is not misused back home, or at least try,” said one Romanian in Brussels, where some stood in line for four hours in the hope of casting a ballot. Fraud is on everyone’s mind in Romania, even 25 years after the fall of Communism. Prime Minister Victor Ponta argued that the long waiting times were caused by extra measures to prevent voting fraud, which he said had been significant in the 2009 elections. But several hundred protesters outside the foreign ministry in Bucharest disagreed. They accused Mr Ponta's campaign of deliberately making it hard for better-educated, more cosmopolitan Romanians abroad to vote, knowing they were less likely to support him than rural, less-educated voters back home. The 161,000 expatriate ballots, compared to 9.5m votes cast in Romania, would hardly have dented Mr Ponta's comfortable majority in the first round. Preliminary results showed Mr Ponta had taken just over 40%, against 30% for Klaus Iohannis, mayor of the Transylvanian town of Sibiu. But because no candidate won an outright majority, the two men will face each other in a run-off on November 16th, and if that contest is close, the expat vote could be important.

Mr Iohannis is an ethnic German widely seen as having revitalised Sibiu. Representing a centre-right bloc called the Christiam-Liberal Alliance, he portrays himself as the candidate of a "normal" (ie corruption-free) Romania, as opposed to what he calls the Romania of “scandals and lies” represented by Mr Ponta. Mr Ponta's reputation is certainly not squeaky-clean. Early in his term as prime minister, two expert committees ruled that he had plagiarised his PhD thesis; he appointed a third committee, which exonerated him. The outgoing president, Traian Basescu, has accused Mr Ponta of having worked for the Romanian intelligence service while serving as a prosecutor, a violation of of the constitution. Mr Ponta denies the claim; he in turn accuses Mr Basescu of having spied for the infamous Securitate, the communist-era secret police.

The outcome of the run-off is not certain, particularly as several centre-right candidates split the vote in the first round. Mr Basescu, a former sea captain who ran on an anti-corruption platform and has maintained a pro-American foreign poilcy, threw his weight in the campaign behind a political protégée, former tourism minister Elena Udrea. She scored a little over 5%, according to early results. Monica Macovei, a former justice minister and member of the European Parliament who was the architect of an anti-corruption unit that took on high-ranking politicians, also scored around 5%. If their voters shift to Mr Iohannis, he may have a chance.

If Mr Ponta wins, he is likely to consolidate his power base and reorient Romania’s foreign policy towards Russia and China, much as Viktor Orban has done in Hungary. Mr Ponta was among the few EU leaders to attend the winter Olympics in the Russian resort of Sochi this year, and allegedly praised the Chinese Communist Party during his visit to Beijing in September (prompting the opposition to demand a retraction). But even if Mr Iohannis wins the presidency, Mr Ponta will continue as prime minister as long as he can hold his coalition government together, or until the next parliamentary elections in 2016. In the meantime, Mr Iohannis is hoping all his supporters can cast a ballot on November 16th, even those who live in Brussels.