Tonight the election campaign will come to an end and the over 17 million possible Romanian voters have only three days to decide who to elect to run the country for the next few years. That is, if they are not already supporters of one of the 12 people running for President or the 52 political parties in the race for Parliament.
We are now faced with the tightest and most fiercely contested elections Romania has experienced since December 1989. Ion Iliescu, the current president, has brought an era to a close, though he will remain in politics as a Social-Democrat Party (PSD) senator. His withdrawal from the presidential race, however, polarised voter options around two candidates for President, both running for the first time: Adrian Nastase, from the PSD-PUR Union (Social-Democrat Party – Romanian Humanist Party), and Traian Basescu, the candidate for the PNL-PD Alliance (Liberal Party – Democrats). Both have had a presence on the political stage and in the administration, as members of political parties, since the early ’90s. Neither has put his popularity to the test of the highest position in the country till now.
Behind them stand two electoral blocs that in their turn have polarised most issues. Thus, the battle for government is also tight. Both alliances, which were created for electoral reasons, will be testing their strength over the coming four years, either in power or as the opposition. One possibility, never before experienced in Romania, is that of cohabitation: an elected President not affiliated to any of the ruling parties.
Although the competition appears strong, this is not the case in the election campaign. The restrictions imposed by the National Broadcasting Council’s (CNA) draconian regulations, as well as a lack of appetite for direct confrontation on the part of some candidates, has rendered television, the best known instrument of persuasion in the last 15 years, as good as useless, as seen in the televised debates, which were dull and non-confrontational. The campaign, however, took to the streets, where files with information became the weapons of the campaign.
During the 30 days of the campaigning, the two most important candidates, Adrian Nastase and Traian Basescu, travelled the country extensively, gathering support at shows and concerts by fashionable bands, with illumination and fireworks.
For the first time, the political programmes of the parties were allocated additional time. The main issue, again for the first time, was the economy. As a result, most voters, regardless of their income bracket, appear to be aware that there will be a fiscal relaxation in the following year. PSD-PUR is promising a gradual relaxation, while the PNL-PD Alliance is promising a flat tax. What was on offer was basically the same, and it was the messages and the new electioneering methods that made the difference.
adelina.radulescu@zf.ro