In a very democratic, although
\nrather perfunctory move, a special Parliament committee is investigating the
\nunclear circumstances in which in 2009 Traian Basescu won a second term in
\noffice as president of Romania, after defeating the then president of the
\nSocial Democratic Party Mircea Geoana in the runoff. The committee was set up
\nfollowing disclosures by the controversial journalist Dan Andronic. Heard on
\nMonday, he said he had no other information apart from what he had already made
\npublic, nor any evidence that the election had been rigged. A questionable
\ncharacter, arrested last year in a corruption-related investigation, and the
\nauthor of a booklet whose very title, 100% anti-Basescu, is tale-telling of
\nhis firm beliefs in the early 2000s, Andronic later switched sides and got a
\nwell-paid job as political adviser to then-president Basescu.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
He said in an interview recently
\nthat on the night of the runoff 8 years ago, he had met, in an informal setting,
\nwith the then Prosecutor General of Romania Laura Codruta Kovesi, currently the
\nhead of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, the former head of the
\nRomanian Intelligence Service George Maior, now the Ambassador of Romania to
\nWashington, and his deputy Florian Coldea. According to Andronic, the meeting
\nlooked very much like the gathering of a crisis committee. All the
\nparticipants, Andronic went on to say, risked losing their positions had Geoana
\nwon the election. Hence the tension with which they received the exit-polls
\nindicating the Social Democrat Geoana as the winner, and the sigh of relief at
\nthe news, made public the next morning, that Basescu had won after all, by a
\nvery narrow margin. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, both Geoana and his
\ncampaign chief Viorel Hrebenciuc, appeared before the committee. Still
\nunconsoled after that defeat, which made him a subject matter for many jokes,
\nGeoana said there had been a deliberate effort, coordinated by top-level
\nleaders of public institutions in Romania, and intended to influence the
\noutcome of that election. Hrebenciuc, too, said he suspected a fraud,
\nespecially in the polling stations abroad, some of which had reported more than
\na thousand voters in only 14 hours.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The former chief of the Permanent
\nElectoral Authority, Octavian Opris, said that, according to documents signed
\nby officers with the relevant institutions, the 2009 elections took place in
\nnormal conditions and all the relevant documents were legal. Opris admitted,
\nnonetheless, that the way the vote had been organized at the Romanian Embassy
\nin Paris, run at that time by a very pro-Basescu Ambassador, Teodor Baconschi,
\ndid not look completely right. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The parliamentary committee will
\nnext hear other prominent diplomats and politicians involved in that election.
\nCommentators note that, even if shattering revelations were made, nothing can
\nnow take back Basescu’s term in office or make Geoana president instead. The
\nonly likely consequence of the investigation is that people’s distrust of an
\nalready unpopular political class would be dramatically reinforced.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A special parliamentary committee is looking into the strange unfolding of the presidential election of 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":73545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[33134,34885,38963,38964,29414],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-73544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-2009-presidential-election","tag-mircea-geoana","tag-parliamentary-investigation","tag-romanian-electoral-authority","tag-traian-basescu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n