13 for Romania
A closer look at the first round of the presidential election in Romania, due on November 24
Ştefan Stoica, 21.11.2024, 13:50
In Romania, presidential elections usually spark the greatest interest and emotions. Even more so this year, when the two rounds of the election for president are held before and after the legislative ballot, thus increasing the electoral stakes.
In business terms, the demand is high among the voters, but the supply is rather poor, perhaps the poorest in the last 35 years, commentators and analysts agree, talking not so much about numbers, because there are 13 candidates in the race, but about their quality.
Their arguments include the fact that most of the candidates lack a well-defined professional profile, even if they have political experience, that they have little if any charisma, and that some of them are tainted by corruption scandals.
On the other hand, there are also candidates whose competence in foreign policy and security, the key areas in the president’s job description, has been proven and is indisputable, but who suffer in terms of political support, because they are running independently.
One other thing that affects this presidential election is that, while at least two contenders, possibly even 3, are fighting for the second place in the decisive round on December 8, one candidate is virtually certain to qualify to the final, and this paradoxically dilutes the tension of the competition.
The debates between Ion Iliescu and Emil Constantinescu in 1992 and 1996, the one between Traian Băsescu and Adrian Năstase in 2004, or the one in 2014 between the outgoing president Klaus Iohannis and his opponent at the time, Victor Ponta, have been truly memorable. They were all competitions between the main political blocs, the left and the right, with the latter winning for the past two decades. Unlike what we’ve seen in the past, during the current presidential campaign there has been just one televised debate, and even that one has not been attended by all the candidates.
In terms of ideologies, all leanings are represented in the presidential race, from the social-democratic to the liberal and from centrist pro-Europeans to populist and sovereignist nationalists.
The election season in Romania opened on June 9, when local and European parliamentary elections took place simultaneously. The two rounds of the presidential elections will be held on November 24 and December 8, and in between, on December 1, the National Day itself, general elections are scheduled. Romanian voters living abroad will be able to vote in the first round of the presidential elections for 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The authorities have set up around 950 polling stations abroad, the largest number so far. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority, around 7,000 Romanian citizens living abroad have opted for postal voting. (AMP)
