European Forum

Romania’s Basescu wins re-election

On 7 December it was announced that according to the final results, Romanian President Traian Basescu of the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) narrowly won a re-election held on 6 December. However, the leftist opposition said it had proof of fraud and would contest the official result.

Results
Basescu won 50.3 per cent versus 49.7 per cent for the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Mircea Geoana. Basescu owes his victory to winning more than three-quarters of 148,000 ballots casted by Romanians living abroad, who had backed him heavily in the first round held on 22 November. Geoana, who claimed victory as soon as Sunday's voting ended, did not concede defeat, although his designated candidate for Prime Minister, Klaus Johannis, appeared to accept the outcome.

Fraud allegations
The PSD said initial exit polls showed Geoana had won and a large number of annulled ballots and evidence of multiple voting would "obviously force us to contest the result." "We have proof of fraud," party Vice-President Liviu Dragnea told a news conference. They have already instructed their representatives not to endorse the final results, and are threatening to file a suit at the Constitutional Court. By law, the results can be appealed before the Court within three days of the election. If fraud is proven, and it is found to have impacted the final result, the runoff would have to be repeated on December 27th. OSCE election observers said the second round of the bitterly contested election met commitments to the pan-European watchdog, but they urged authorities to investigate reports of irregularities. Election officials said they had not received any official complaint contesting the vote. Full results are expected to be validated later this week by the Constitutional Court. The police reported 194 irregularities.

Government struggle
The re-elected President Basescu must now name a new government that can restart talks on a stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue. Last month, the IMF suspended a review of the aid deal after opposition parties toppled a Basescu-allied cabinet that has stayed in place as an interim administration. IMF has said it will withhold 1.5 billion euros of aid this month until a new cabinet and a cost-cutting budget are in place. But mustering support for a cabinet could be a stretch for Basescu and take time.

Analysts say Basescu may struggle to form a government with other major parties with which he repeatedly clashed over anti-corruption measures during his five-year term. Basescu is seen seeking a government backed by his centre-right Democrat Liberal allies, an ethnic Hungarian party and possible defectors from the Liberals, his preferred partner. "It would not be so hard to find 20 extra votes from the Liberals and the Social Democrats because MPs fear early elections," said political analyst Mircea Marian. However, the close election results will just prolong the instability in Romania. It will make it harder to push through necessary reforms and to get the IMF deal back on track.

On 1 October the Romanian government collapsed, when PSD leader Geoana announced that all nine PSD ministers resigned from the government as a protest against the sacking of the PSD interior minister Dan Nica. In addition, Geoana accused Romanian President Basescu of instigating the political crisis ahead of Presidential elections in November.

Source: Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Setimes