Romanian general election, 2004

Romanian general election

28 November 2004 12 December 2004

150px Nominee Traian Băsescu Adrian Năstase Party PDL PSD Popular vote 5,126,794 4,881,520 Percentage 51.23% 48.77%

President before election Ion Iliescu PSD Elected President Traian Băsescu PDL

General election were held in Romania on 28 November 2004, with a second round of the presidential election on 12 December between Prime Minister Adrian Năstase of the ruling Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) and Traian Băsescu of the opposition Justice and Truth Alliance. Băsescu was elected President by a narrow majority of just 51.2%.

Following 2003 amendments to the constitution which lengthened the presidential term to five years, these were the last joint elections to the presidency and Parliament.

Campaign

Parliamentary elections

The main contenders were the left-wing alliance made up of the incumbent Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) and the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), and, on the other hand, the center-right "Justice and Truth" alliance (Dreptate şi adevăr) comprising the liberal National Liberal Party (Romania) and the reformist Democratic Party (Romania).

Other significant contenders were the Greater Romania Party (PRM) (right-wing nationalists), the ethnic Hungarian party Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), and the Union for Romanian Reconstruction, a group of right-wing technocrats.

Conduct

The opposition alleged fraudulent use by the PSD of "supplementary lists", designed to help Romanians in transit to vote. Traditionally, Romanians voted with a cardboard identity card, which was stamped when they voted. Most Romanians now have laminated plastic IDs, to which a printed stamp is affixed when a person votes. However, the stamps can be easily removed.

The opposition claimed that there were organized "electoral excursions" of PSD supporters who were bussed to various towns to vote several times. This was corroborated by several teams of journalists, who followed the buses.

The Romanian opposition announced on 30 November that they were demanding a re-run of the election, because some of the void votes were allegedly awarded to the PSD. They showed evidence that some people voted more than once (they found about 750 persons in three counties, but their search of the supplementary lists would continue) and also showed that many of the minutes of the electoral committees were wrongly completed (the sum of the number of valid votes and null votes did not match the number of voters, sometimes by a difference of hundreds or thousands of votes) and the central software not only allowed these contradictory figures, but it also added these differences by default to the PSD. The opposition announced that it had started a parallel count, which showed a PSD-DA difference of only 2% between.

The government attacked the opposition by arguing that 'rumours of fraud' affect Romania's economy and its external credibility.

In January 2005, the IMAS institute of statistics released an analysis of the voting results in the 16,824 precincts. In the top 1,000 precincts with the most votes on the supplementary lists, the PSD had 43% to the DA's 23%, while in the precincts with least votes on supplementary lists, the PSD had 30% to the DA's 34%. The same trend was true in the precincts with most void votes.[1]

Results

President

Winner by county in the first round

Winner by county in the runoff

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
		Votes	%	Votes	%
Traian Băsescu	PNL-PD	3,545,236	33.9	5,126,794	51.2
Adrian Năstase	National Union PSD+PUR	4,278,864	40.9	4,881,520	48.8
Corneliu Vadim Tudor	Greater Romania Party	1,313,714	12.6
Béla Markó	Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania	533,446	5.1
Gheorghe Ciuhandu	Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party	198,394	1.9
Gigi Becali	New Generation Party	184,560	1.8
Petre Roman	Democratic Force	140,702	1.4
Gheorghe Dinu	Independent	113,321	1.1
Marian Petre Miluț	People's Action	43,378	0.4
Ovidiu Tudorici	Union for Romanian Reconstruction	37,910	0.4
Aurel Rădulescu	Christian Democratic People's Alliance	35,455	0.3
Alexandru Raj Tunaru	Democratic Youth Party	27,225	0.3
Invalid/blank votes		339,010	–	103,245	–
Total		10,791,215	100	10,111,559	100
Registered voters/turnout		18,449,344	58.5	18,316,104	55.2
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Parliament

Senate

 Summary of the 28 November 2004 Senate of Romania election results

Parties and alliances		Votes	%	Seats
	National Union PSD+PUR (Uniunea Naţională PSD+PUR) Social Democratic Party (Partidul Social Democrat) Humanist Party of Romania (Partidul Umanist din România)	3,798,607	37.2	57
	Justice and Truth Alliance (Alianţa Dreptate si Adevăr) National Liberal Party (Partidul Naţional Liberal) Democratic Party (Partidul Democrat)	3,250,663	31.8	49
	Greater Romania Party (Partidul România Mare)	1,394,698	13.6	21
	Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (Uniunea Democratică Maghiară din România)	637,109	6.2	10
	New Generation Party (Partidul Noua Generaţie)	241,486	2.4	-
	Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (Partidul Naţional Ţărănesc Creştin Democrat)	196,027	1.9	-
Total (turnout 56.5%)				137
Source: Biroul Electoral Central

Chamber of Deputies

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
National Union PSD+PUR	3,730,352	36.61	132	–23
Justice and Truth Alliance	3,191,546	31.33	112	+51
Greater Romania Party	1,316,751	12.92	48	–36
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania	628,125	6.17	22	–5
New Generation Party	227,443	2.23	0	0
Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party	188,268	1.85	0	New
Democratic Force Party of Romania	79,376	0.78	0	New
Ecologist Party of Romania	73,001	0.72	0	0
Social Democratic Roma Party of Romania	56,076	0.55	1	0
Romanian National Unity Party	53,222	0.52	0
People's Action Party	48,152	0.47	0	New
United Socialist Party	44,459	0.44	0	New
Democratic Forum of Germans	36,166	0.35	1	0
Romanian Workers' Party	35,278	0.35	0	New
Union for Romanian Reconstruction	32,749	0.32	0	New
Socialist Alliance Party	28,429	0.28	0	New
Romanian Socialist Party	28,034	0.28	0	0
National Christian Democratic Party	27,650	0.27	0	New
New Democracy Party	20,926	0.21	0	New
Social Democratic Party "Constantin Titel Petrescu"	20,318	0.20	0	0
People's Alliance of Christian Democrats	18,594	0.18	0	New
Democratic Youth Party	16,271	0.16	0	New
Bulgarian Union of Banat–Romania	15,283	0.15	1	0
Third Millennium Party	15,109	0.15	0	New
Alliance for a United Romania	15,041	0.15	0	New
Party for the Motherland	14,882	0.15	0	0
Union of the Ukrainians of Romania	10,888	0.11	1	0
Community of the Lippovan Russians in Romania	10,562	0.10	1	0
Union of Croatians of Romania	10,331	0.10	1	0
Union of Armenians of Romania	9,810	0.10	1	0
Association of Macedonians of Romania	9,750	0.10	1	0
Cultural Association of Slavonic Macedonians of Romania	9,595	0.09	0	New
Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania	8,449	0.08	1	0
Democratic Union of Croatians of Romania	7,769	0.08	0	0
Democratic Turkish Union of Romania	7,715	0.08	1	0
Ethnic Turks Association	7,396	0.07	0	New
Hellenic Union of Romania	7,161	0.07	1	0
Union of Serbs of Romania	6,643	0.07	1	0
Turco-Muslim Union of Romania	6,517	0.06	0	New
Democratic Union of Turkish-Muslim Tatars	6,452	0.06	1	0
Democratic Association of Slavonic Macedonians of Romania	6,344	0.06	0	New
Bulgarian Cultural Association of Romania	6,240	0.06	0	0
Association of Italians of Romania	6,168	0.06	1	New
Democratic Union of Slovaks and Czechs of Romania	5,950	0.06	1	0
Union of Poles of Romania	5,473	0.05	1	0
Italian Community of Romania	5,181	0.05	0	–1
Cultural Union of Poles of Romania	5,159	0.05	0	New
League of Albanians of Romania	5,011	0.05	1	0
Bratstvo Community of Bulgarians in Romania	4,065	0.04	0	0
Cultural Union of Ruthenians of Romania	2,871	0.03	1	0
People's Party of Romania	2,336	0.02	0	New
Force of Justice	1,123	0.01	0	New
Independents	51,646	0.51	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	599,641	–	–	–
Total	10,787,450	100	332	–13
Registered voters/turnout	18,449,344	58.47	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, Global Elections Database

Aftermath

On 13 December, the PUR president Dan Voiculescu hinted that they have more in common with the DA (both have a center-right orientation) and that they might break from the PSD, but one day later said that he would remain with PSD. It has been suggested by the press that this could be result of a blackmail about his communist past. By 25 December both UDMR and PUR signed a protocol of alliance with DA (Justice and Truth), with the designated prime minister being Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. Thus, the PSD was left in opposition while Justice and Truth, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania and the Humanist Party (now the Conservative Party) formed the government.

External links

• Central Electoral Bureau (Romanian)
• Fraud worries in Romanian poll BBC News