FUNDULEA, Romania - For Romania's poor rural voters one name is missing on ballots cast in Sunday's presidential run-off between opposition leader Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Adrian Nastase -- outgoing president Ion Iliescu.

Iliescu, a dominant yet loved father-figure for many Romanians, is barred from running after two terms in office.

Surveys show rural voters will back Nastase, Iliescu's protege and succesor at the helm of the ruling ex-communist PSD party, but for most of them the slick lawyer is just a substitute for the real thing.

"I voted for Iliescu every time after the 1989 revolution," Victor Voicu, 73, a pensioner from the village of Fundulea, east of Bucharest.

"I think Nastase could be as good as Iliescu who trusted him and has made him his successor but I'm a bit sad that Iliescu himself can't run."

Nearly half of Romania's population lives in the countryside, with most relying on low state pensions, which the PSD promises to boost.

The first round of the presidential vote two weeks ago revealed a growing divide between city-dwellers impatient for change and rural voters nostalgic for the security of communist times symbolised by Iliescu.

This devotion to the 74-year-old president contrasts with criticism by many Romanian intellectuals and Western diplomats who believe Iliescu bears much of the blame for Romania's slow progress towards the European mainstream.

Critics cannot forget Iliescu for unleashing thousands of club-wielding miners in 1990 to quash student demonstrations in Bucharest, demanding his resigation and far-reaching reforms a year after the overthrow and execution of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Romanian President Ion Iliescu (Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)

But for many poorer Romanians, Iliescu remains a role model and his involvement in the campaign on behalf of Nastase has been a boon for the PSD, whose image has been tarnished by accusations of corruption and patronage.

"Nastase has good manners. He learned a lot from Iliescu," said Ion Gavrila, 35, who works for a private farming association.