BUCHAREST, Nov 24 — Romanians look set today to re-elect centrist president Klaus Iohannis, who has pledged to step up a fight against corruption and restart a judicial reform slowed down by successive Social Democrat (PSD) governments.

While there have been no recent opinion polls, local bookmakers make Iohannis the short-odds favourite to beat former PSD prime minister Viorica Dancila comfortably in today’s runoff.

Under a succession of PSD governments, Romania rolled back anti-corruption measures and weakened the independence of the courts. Along with ex-communist peers Poland and Hungary, it has been heavily criticised by Brussels for its actions.

However, the 60-year-old Iohannis has been credited by Western allies and the European Union with trying to protect the rule of law, in particular by challenging attempts to limit judges’ independence.

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The president’s powers are mostly limited to nominating a prime minister on the basis of who can command a majority, challenging laws in the Constitutional Court, and appointing some chief prosecutors.

If elected again, Iohannis will have a chance to install anti-graft and anti-mafia prosecutors who are serious about tackling endemic corruption with the backing of Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, who became head of a liberal minority government by winning a parliamentary vote of confidence three weeks ago.

Teacher Andreea Mihai, 50, said that if Iohannis won today, “things should slowly return to normality.

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“Both Orban and Iohannis will work together in the same direction.”

Dancila’s PSD had increased the burden of proof in corruption cases, reorganised panels of judges and set up a special unit to investigate magistrates for potential abuses, a move widely seen as an instrument of political coercion.

Romania’s judicial reforms have been monitored by Brussels since it joined the EU in 2007; in October, Brussels said the reforms were going backwards.

Iohannis, a soft-spoken ethnic German and former mayor of Sibiu, became president in 2014.

He helped to secure a popular approval in a referendum last May that called for the government to be banned from altering legislation by emergency decree, and advocated a ban on amnesties and pardons for graft-related crimes. — Reuters