A Romanian mayor who died from coronavirus complications has secured a landslide victory in local elections that took place two weeks after his passing.

Ion Aliman won a third term as mayor of Deveselu, a village in southern Romania, securing 64% of the vote after his name was left on printed on ballots.

Officials said it was too late to print new ballot paper hence Aliman’s name could not be removed after his death in Bucharest on 15 September.

Locals have visited his grave to pay respects, a video on social media shows a large group of villagers gathering around Aliman’s tombstone.

“It is your victory,” one man can be heard saying in the video. “He took the side of the village, respected all the laws. I don’t think we will see a mayor like him again.”

Aliman, a former naval officer, was a member of the left-leaning Social Democrat Party (PSD) and would have turned 57 on Monday

Aliman’s victory is not the first for a deceased Romanian candidate.

In 2008, Neculai Ivascu was re-elected mayor of Voinesti, in the country’s north-east, after dying from liver disease.