Romanian voters give candidates the thumbs down

The first round of local elections, which took place yesterday, was characterised countrywide by a very low rate of vote attendance, which, according to sociologists, benefits PDSR (the Party of Social Democracy).

The main absentees were young people, as they were not convinced by the candidates’ offers, and also former supporters of the current power who are disappointed and who failed to identify with a certain voting option, specialists maintain.

Bucharest will most likely see a second round, and the City Hall will be disputed between Sorin Oprescu (PDSR) and Calin Catalin Chirita (CDR – the Democratic Convention). According to data provided by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) yesterday at 17.00h, vote attendance amounted to 29.97 percent nationwide. The lowest level was registered in Bucharest (with 21.28 percent), while the highest participation level was posted in Harghita county, with 44.82 percent. In Salaj county, 37.63 percent of the voters had expressed their option, while in Mures 36.10 percent chose to vote. Voting sections where Hungarian ethnics had been assigned sported the highest level of attendance.

In the Capital, sector 1 “supplied” most voters (namely 23.55 percent), followed by 22.21 percent in sector 2, 19.95 percent in sector 3, 22.03 percent in sector 4, 18.68 in sector 5 and 21.38 in sector 6. Liberals say that they will support the Convention’s candidate in the second round. “We have a protocol with CDR and we shall stand by it,” PNL prime-vice-president Valeriu Stoica said yesterday. In exchange, the PDSR candidate might obtain the support of PRM (Great Romania Party) in the second round. The leader of this party, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, said that he would meet with representatives of Iliescu’s party this week, in order to sign a protocol.

Most political leaders admitted that results obtained in the locals represent a “signal” for the general elections scheduled for the fall. PDSR president Ion Iliescu said that the results of yesterday’s round of elections represent a signal for future elections, while PNR president Virgil Magureanu considered that the way the votes would be distributed in the local elections will have an “impact” on the electorate.

Both in Bucharest and in the country numerous breaches were signalled, the most frequent being electoral activities developed near or within voting sections. The president of Sector 5 Electoral Bureau Alina Traila yesterday said that PDSR representatives continued the electoral campaign in several voting points in the sector. Members of Iliescu’s party around noon were distributing to voters from sections 851 and 852 electoral bags containing a pen, sandwiches and a letter signed by vice-president Dan Ioan Popescu.

The letter advertised the party’s candidates for the City Hall, so PNL (Liberal Party) representatives announced the Municipal Electoral Bureau (BEM). PDSR contested CDR with BEM, as its candidate, Calin Catalin Chirita, allegedly gave other permanent lists to the voting points.

Christian-Democrat Alliance (ANCD) also complained to BEC, claiming that PDSR continued its campaign in Piata Rahova yesterday morning, urging the citizens to vote for its candidates. Teleorman Electoral Bureau registered four complaints, from PNL, ApR, UFD and PDSR, concerning the distribution of some electoral materials inviting the citizens to vote for PD so as to win a tombola organised in the evening. Ion Florea, current mayor of Voila locality, Brasov county, and running for the same position, stamped several bulletins of vote in the box enclosing his name and distributed them to the citizens as electoral material. The chairman of a voting section from a village in Maramures was dismissed as he was a PDSR member.