Parliament’s investigative committee to start its activity

Set up last week, Parliaments committee charged with investigating the presidential election of 2009, when Traian Basescu won a second term in office, will commence its activity on Monday.

Ştefan Stoica, 18.05.2017, 14:10

The committee set up to investigate the second round of the presidential election of 2009 on Monday will start its public hearings. The first to appear before the committee will be journalist and political advisor Dan Andronic, the very man who made the controversial revelations regarding the political influence channeled in the election campaign, thus determining the Prosecutor’s Office and Parliament to start the investigation.

Andronic said that leading officials within important state institutions, such as the chief of the Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi, at the time the General Prosecutor, the former Intelligence chief George Cristian Maior and his deputy, Florian Coldea, met for a private party at the residence of a political leader on the election night. Traian Basescu won his second term with a narrow margin compared to his opponent, Mircea Geoana, at the time, the head of the Social-Democratic Party.

Andronic implied that this group of people coordinated a large-scale operation to swing the presidential vote in favour of Traian Basescu. After Andronic’s hearing, the committee will question the leadership of the Election Authority at the time, Mircea Geoana and his election campaign team, the Minister of the Interior at the time and the head of the Special Telecommunications Service.

The committee chairman, Social-Democrat Senator Mihai Fifor, says all the people involved in the 2009 election will be heard: “My colleagues and I considered it was natural to start this series of hearings with the very people who signaled the irregularities surrounding this vote. It was never our intention to make this issue political, it’s not about that. We’re trying to keep an objective approach. We will also invite Mr. Basescu for hearings, as well as those who everyone watched on TV and who have a lot to tell us, so we’re trying to remain unbiased so that our activity should be fair and devoid of any vengeful spirit”.

Under the new regulatory framework, all people who’ve received a subpoena must turn up for their deposition, irrespective of office. Those who have expressed their reluctance regarding the usefulness of the investigation, which many see as redundant given that the Prosecutor’s office is also conducting its own investigation into this matter, claim its real stake is the hearing of Laura Codruta Kovesi, the anti-corruption chief, who is very disliked amongst Social-Democrats. The second round of the presidential vote of 2009 generated a lot of controversy, fuelled by the small difference in the final result, accounting for a few tens of thousands of votes, the voting polls where a large number of people voted on special lists and eye-witness accounts concerning suspicion looming over the voting process abroad. Prosecutors have opened an investigation on charges of abuse of office and forgery of deeds and election records.