An obituary photo of former mayor Aliman Ion is taped onto the walls of the city hall in Deveselu, southern Romania, September 28, 2020. Inquam Photos/Bogdan Danescu via REUTERS
Bucharest: A mayor in southern Romanian grabbed a landslide election victory -- despite dying of coronavirus days earlier, local reports said on Monday.
Ion Aliman clocked up 1,057 of 1,600 votes cast in Deveselu municipality even though he died on September 17, reports said.
The ballots had already been printed at the time of Aliman's death and his name could not be removed, according to local officials.
After the polls closed, local supporters flocked to his grave to "celebrate the victory".
"We went to congratulate him," a Deveselu resident commented under a photo posted on Facebook that showed dozens of people with candles at the local cemetery.
A re-run of the election is now expected.
Deveselu previously hit the headlines in 2018 when a local farmer was ordered to move his flock of sheep because they kept triggering the alarm at a US military facility.
