The final countdown for PD elections

The Democrats tonight will elect their president, after the race between incumbent president Petre Roman, vice-president Traian Basescu and senator Simona Marinescu comes to an end.

For the first time since he was elected PD president, Petre Roman has to fight counter-candidates for the most important position in the party, as Basescu, who joined the race three months ago, was a genuine surprise for the current leader.

The stake of the party’s election is PD’s further political evolution. This is because PD members, unlike other parties, vote their president according to motions, which are political programmes, submitted by the candidates.

According to the three political programmes, the candidates obviously do not consider that PD should approach PDSR (the Party of Social Democracy), as this has been the party’s stance so far, and rule out any collaboration with PRM (Greater Romania Party).

The ties with PNL (the Liberal Party) and UDMR (the democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) will depend on the next Democrat leader.

Yesterday, the atmosphere was quite strained among PD members, and most leaders were reluctant to comment or forecast the election’s result. Petre Roman was impossible to locate, just as Traian Basescu. Previously contacted, Roman declined to comment any possible result of the elections, but specified he wouldn’t leave the party no matter what.

Basescu made a similar statement when Roman advanced the idea of the party’s split after the launch of his “subordinate’s” candidacy. It would be difficult to predict the future ties between the two.

The third candidate, Simona Marinescu, says that a second round will certainly be held. “One is to leave Modrogan 1(the address of the party’s headquarters, i.e.), while the other is to enter Modrogan 1,” PD senator forecast.

Simona Marinescu was confident that the party would not split, feeling that the two candidates would comply with the appeal they had signed and through which they pledged not to leave the party regardless of the elections’ result.

However, if she does not make it to the second round, Simona Marinescu will not advise her supporters to vote for any of the two remaining candidates.