Local Elections Results
The Central Electoral Bureau announces the final results of September 27 local elections
Leyla Cheamil, 13.10.2020, 14:00
Two weeks after the local elections in Romania, which took place in special conditions, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Central Electoral Bureau announced the final results. The pandemic changed the calendar of elections originally scheduled for June, which were postponed to September 27, thus extending the terms of local elected officials by half a year.
According to the Central Electoral Bureau, the oldest political party in Romania, the ruling National Liberal Party, won the largest number of votes in the recent election, both at the level of mayoralties (34.58%), and at the level of local and county councils. The Social Democratic Party, in opposition, ranked second, with a score of 30.34% for mayoralties. However, in terms of the number of mayors and presidents of county councils, the Social Democrats outnumbered the Liberals. The final data show that the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance is in third place with a score of less than 7 percent.
Regarding the positions of presidents of county councils, the Social Democratic Party got 16 seats by itself and 4 due to electoral alliances, the National Liberal Party won 15 seats and another 2 due to electoral alliances, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians won 4 seats. In Bucharest, the General City Hall was won by the mathematician and civic activist Nicusor Dan. He ran as an independent, but supported by Liberals and the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance.
This is the second time that Nicușor Dan run for the position of mayor general of the capital, but this time, he won the confrontation with the incumbent mayor Gabriela Firea, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, to whom he had lost 4 years before. This year, two of the promises with which Nicusor Dan won over the majority of Bucharest residents who went to the polls are access to European funds to solve the problems related to district heating and improve surface and underground public transport.
On the other hand, the Social Democratic Party got the biggest number of votes for the General Council and for the local councils of districts 1, 2, 5 and 6 and, in alliance with the Social Liberal Humanist Power Party, of district 4, and Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance received most of the votes for the Local Council of district 3. The recent local elections are seen as a test for the parliamentary ones which should take place on 6 December. There is, however, an initiative of an independent deputy, who recently submitted to the Senate a bill proposing the postponement of the parliamentary elections for March 14, 2021. (M. Ignatescu)
