Final List of EP Candidates Released

The Central Electoral Bureau in Romania made public the final lists of candidates in the elections for the European Parliament due next month.

Florentin Căpitănescu, 17.04.2014, 14:30

Romanian voters have been presented with the final list of candidates for the European Parliament elections of May 25th. On Wednesday, the Central Electoral Bureau announced having approved the lists submitted by 15 parties and alliances. The left-wing coalition in power in Romania, made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Conservative Party, is likely to win the largest number of votes, followed by the two right-of-centre parties in opposition, namely the National Liberal Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.

According to opinion polls, two other parliamentary parties, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the populist Party of the People, stand chances of sending representatives in the European Parliament. The same goes for a handful of parties outside the Parliament of Romania, including the pro-presidential People’s Movement and Civic Force, and the nationalist Greater Romania Party. Standing out among the eight independent candidates approved by the Bureau are the former world gymnastics champion Corina Ungureanu and actor Mircea Diaconu, whose candidacy was approved by a court of justice at the last minute.

The election campaign will officially begin on April the 25th, 30 days before election day. Analysts believe the European Parliament election will not get Romanian voters particularly excited, but this is actually the case in most EU countries. In the previous election, held in 2009, only 27% of the Romanian voters showed up in polling stations. This year however the rate may be a little higher, because Bucharest decided to hold by-elections on the same date, to fill the MP and mayor posts that have become vacant since the latest regular ballots. The local relevance of these elections may therefore get more Romanian voters to go to polling stations, commentators believe.

On the other hand, the European Parliament election is the first test for Romanian parties since the national parliamentary election of 2012, and will serve as a barometer for the presidential election due this autumn, which is without doubt the chief political battle of the year.