One week to the parliamentary elections in Romania

Romania is getting ready for the parliamentary elections due on December 11.

Florentin Căpitănescu, 05.12.2016, 13:40

This is the last week of campaign in the run up to the December 11 parliamentary elections. Under the law, the election campaign comes to an end on Saturday, December 10, at 7 p.m. By that date, the candidates running for a deputy or senator seat can present their political programs and electoral offers by means of posters, rallies and meetings with the citizens. As regards the electoral debates broadcast on radio and TV, they will end on Friday December 9 at 7 p.m. The preparations for the organization of the elections are now on the finishing line.

Thursday, December 8, is the deadline for conveying to the Electoral Bureau the envelopes enclosing the documents for the postal vote, which is a total novelty in the history of elections in Romania. On Saturday, the presidents of the electoral constituencies will receive the ballots, stamps, permanent lists and the other necessary forms. Almost 6,500 people are running in the parliamentary elections for the 466 seats, 136 in the Senate and 312 in the Chamber of Deputies, plus 18 seats for the deputies of the national minorities, other than the Hungarian one, whose representation is ensured ex officio. 43 constituencies have been set up: 41 in Romania’s counties, in Bucharest and the Diaspora.

The elections are organized according to new election legislation which reintroduces, after two rounds of uninominal voting, the party-list system. The previous uninominal voting system, with the so-called representation quotas, led to huge abnormalities, raising the number of elected MPs in the current Romanian Parliament at 600. Running as favorite in the elections is the leftist Social Democratic Party, followed by the rightist National Liberal Party, and the Save Romania Union, a recently set-up party which, according to observers, will have a heavy say in the future parliament. With real chances of crossing the 5% electoral threshold are the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), the rightist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) set up by the incumbent president of the Senate, Călin Popescu Tăriceanu and the rightist People’s Movement Party (PMP), of the former president Traian Băsescu.

The future MPs have the difficult mission to change the public image of the institution that has been so frequently associated with incompetence, immorality and corruption. In another development, the makeup of the future parliament will be the starting point for the negotiations related to the formation of a new government, in the context in which none of the parties is expected to obtain a majority on its own.

(Translated by Lacramioara Simion)