Published:
The allegations of fraudulent practices during the 28 November elections in
Mr Parvulescu, what is your overall opinion about the parliamentary and presidential elections in
For the first time in the post-revolutionary history of
This at least partly explains why the results are under what we call a 'fraud margin'. Under Romanian law, the citizens may cast their ballots in any voting district in the country. It was also rather easy to remove the self-adhesive stamp on voters' identity cards [which therefore allowed the possibility that they might vote a second time], which was the only safety element until the Central Electoral Bureau decided on stricter controls on 29 November. Furthermore, those who voted away from their home were entered on special lists, which were not, according to the law, centralised at a national level and nobody was checking whether those persons had voted before. After the bureau’s 29 November ruling, these lists may now be centralised and checked by the political parties, and they can also check the persons voting in several places and compare them to the permanent lists.
Another problem occurred with the use of the mobile ballot boxes [sent to voters' houses on request if, for example, they were ill or disabled]. In several voting districts we found that the mobile ballot boxes were sent either to persons who had not solicited them, or to persons who had not presented, along with the request for the box, medical documents attesting that they themselves could not get to the ballot stations by themselves.
The third important problem was connected to 'administrative mobilisation', especially in the countryside, of persons who did not originally intend to vote.
All these problems belong to what we call the 'fraud margin'. Since the law does not allow for fraud to be clearly proven, neither the observers, nor the electoral bureaus are able to establish if a citizen did or did not vote in more than one place, as there is no formal and clear ban on mayors forcefully mobilising the citizens to vote.
In fact, to prove the existence of 'electoral tourism', numerous journalists went out to vote on purpose in more than one district.
If voter turnout is ten million, a one per cent fraud rate means 100,000 suspect votes. Let’s make an approximate calculus: if twenty votes are 'stolen' in every district, at a national level, in the 17,500 districts, fraudulent votes would represent three per cent of the total vote. Under the current conditions, a 20% fraud rate appears to be not only possible but also plausible.
Pro Democratia, the association I represent, has asked for the law to be modified on numerous occasions. However, this has not happened yet. Following some last minute changes that were introduced through an emergency decree, the government now intends to forbid, through another emergency decree, the use of the supplementary voters’ lists for the second round.
It remains clear for us that the government is trying to find improvised solutions to problematic situations. Furthermore, we strongly believe that all these wrongdoings should be presented clearly and coherently to the Romanian and the international public opinion in order to prevent them from happening again.
What are your predictions for the run-off on 12 December?
One positive result of the 28 November elections has been the balancing of powers in Romanian politics. Whatever the final result, these forces are relatively equal and this will increase the autonomy of the public institutions that have been politicised so far. It will also contribute to the strengthening of individual freedoms, unlike under the hegemonic party system that has dominated
The second round of the presidential elections is very complicated and debatable as it contrasts two
There is also a regional-economic split. People in
Finally, there is the cultural division. In cultural terms,
Predictions concerning the presidential candidates are hard to make. Both candidates have a very good chance, but so far, in the run-offs to the presidential elections, Romanians have voted for the candidate of the party that won the elections.
What do you think about the chances of either party winning a majority in parliament? Could Romania come to a cohabitation system, similar to that in France, with Basescu as a president and the PSD together with the Humanist Party (PUR) commanding a majority coalition in parliament? If so, what would this mean for
I think a cohabitation system wouldn’t be workable in
Should Adrian Nastase become the president, a confirmation vote could be achieved with the help of Corneliu Vadim Tudor’s Greater Romania Party (PRM) or even the
In the case of Traian Basescu becoming the president, he will likely try to form a government with his own political group, the
If there is a change of regime, what impact (if any) would that have on
A change in the political colour of the government and the president does not imply in any way a policy transformation concerning European integration. There is a suspicion among officials in
http://www.euractiv.com/Article?_lang=EN&tcmuri=tcm:29-133221-16&type=Interview,
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Birou de traduceri autorizate. Oana Gheorghiu - tel/fax: 252.8681 / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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