Ruling party PSD (Social Democrat Party) had a rough day yesterday, as Saturday, on the first day of the referendum for the Constitution amendment, only 14.29% of the almost 18 million voters had showed up to express their options.
Taken aback by the people’s reaction, the ruling party yesterday morning organised a videoconference with the local leaders. The message was imperative: Use whatever methods, but get the people to vote! From that moment on, nothing mattered anymore: mayors organised emergency sweepstakes, right in the middle of the voting halls, launched the Constitution Soccer Cup, promised to pay the people’s maintenance expenses, gave away socks, piglets, etc.
Organisers pushed it even further and took mobile voting urns to the streets, although this method is only allowed for the voters that cannot leave their homes.
The stake was just as huge as these last moment efforts. And it looks like they paid off: at 15.00 hours, five hours before the voting rooms were due to close, some 34.27% of Romanians had cast their vote. The referendum will only be valid if 50% plus one of the voters show up. But the new Constitution must overcome another hurdle before it can be enforced: it must be approved by the majority of those that cast their vote. Otherwise, the current Constitution remains valid and the whole process must start over for the changes to be validated. However, the money spent for organising the referendum and the ample campaign aimed at popularising the new Constitution (more than $10 million) is nothing compared to other consequences induced by a possible failure. Massive absenteeism points to a non-confidence vote for the politicians, whether they belong to the ruling party or the opposition.
At the same time, although this is not about the elections but the Constitution, which concerns us all, the unexpected absenteeism signals a breakup between voters and the political elite.
The experience of the past two days came as a major surprise for PSD. Only several days before the referendum, the ruling party had fuelled its optimism with a poll conducted by Metro Media Transilvania, which said more than 70% of Romanians would vote.
Sociologists will probably sort out what has happened (especially since more than 70% of voters showed up to vote for the first Constitution after the 1989 revolution, in 1991).
However, one cannot ignore the corruption cases, the repeated hesitations of the administration, the promises that were never kept. Thus, the numerous ads intended to publicise the new Constitution became utterly ineffective as the allegations against ministers Hildegard Puwak and Mircea Beuran and advisor Virgil Teodorescu surfaced at about the same time. mirela.luca@zf.ro ; iulian.anghel@zf.ro