BUCHAREST, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Liberal Party seized the largest number of seats in the Romanian parliament, surpassing the Alliance of Social Democrats and Conservatives which got the most votes in the elections, showed data published on Tuesday evening by the Central Election Bureau.

    According to the bureau, after the distribution and redistribution of the seats on candidates, the Democratic Liberal Party finally got 115 seats in the Deputies' Chamber, the lower house of parliament, and 51 seats in the Senate, while the alliance got 114 and 49 seats in the two houses of the parliament respectively.

    They are followed by the National Liberal Party which won 65 seats in the lower house and 28 seats in Senate.

    The bureau earlier announced that the alliance obtained 33.09 percent in the Deputies' Chamber and 34.16 percent in the Senate. It was closely followed by the pro-presidential Democrat Liberal Party, which obtained 32.36 percent and 33.57 percent in the two houses of parliament.

    Since no party obtained an outright majority in the parliament, the major contenders will have to seek a coalition government.

    The National Liberal Party, although only ranking third, thus can play a vital role in power balance in the formation of a new cabinet. Its campaign manager Bogdan Oltean said Tuesday that his party continued to back the idea of a cabinet headed by Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and would not hesitate to be in the opposition otherwise.

    "If a majority forms around the liberals' economic relaunch plan, it would be natural for liberals to lead that government and the prime minister would have to be liberals," he said, stressed that otherwise "we won't hesitate to switch to opposition."

    The Democrats leader Emil Boc said Tuesday the party preferred a right-wing coalition and its first option for negotiations was with liberals, but "that is not our only option."

    Referring to the liberals' claim for holding the post of prime minister, Boc said that any party could start negotiations with "maximal demands."

    Social democrat leader Mircea Geoana said earlier that the social democrats should head the new government.

    According to the Constitution, Romania's president designates a candidate for the post of prime minister following consultations with the party with absolute majority in the parliament or, if there is no such a majority, with the parties represented in parliament. The president has a decisive say in nominating the prime minister if no party has the majority in parliament.

    According to President Traian Basescu, he will start negotiations with the political parties for the nomination of prime minister only after the outcome of the elections has been validated.

    That means the process cannot start earlier than Dec. 6, when the election results are expected to be validated, he said.

    Sunday's parliamentary election was witnessed by a historically low turnout of only 39.26 percent.