With 99.98% of votes counted, Călin Georgescu, an independent who has praised Vladimir Putin as "a man who loves his country", was on 22.9%, with the reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union (USR), second on 19.17%.
The result, one of the biggest electoral upsets in Romania's post-communist history, triggered the swift resignation as leader of the country's centre-left, pro-EU party of the prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, the pre-ballot frontrunner, who finished third on 19.15%.
The runoff - the first for three decades without a candidate from Ciolacu's Social Democrats (PSD) - is due on 8 December, after parliamentary elections next Sunday. Romania's president has a semi-executive role with significant decision-making powers over national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.
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