Romanian general election, 2004

Romanian general election
Romania
28 November 2004
12 December 2004

 
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 Bucharest Mayor Traian Băsescu of the opposition Justice and Truth Alliance. Băsescu was elected President by a narrow majority of just 51.2%.[1]

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.

Results

President

Winner by county in the first round
Winner by county in the runoff
Candidate Party First round Second round
Votes % Votes %
Traian BăsescuPNL-PD3,545,23633.95,126,79451.2
Adrian NăstaseNational Union PSD+PUR4,278,86440.94,881,52048.8
Corneliu Vadim TudorGreater Romania Party1,313,71412.6
Béla MarkóDemocratic Union of Hungarians in Romania533,4465.1
Gheorghe CiuhanduChristian-Democratic National Peasants' Party198,3941.9
Gigi BecaliNew Generation Party184,5601.8
Petre RomanDemocratic Force140,7021.4
Gheorghe DinuIndependent113,3211.1
Marian Petre MiluțPeople's Action43,3780.4
Ovidiu TudoriciUnion for Romanian Reconstruction37,9100.4
Aurel RădulescuChristian Democratic People's Alliance35,4550.3
Alexandru Raj TunaruDemocratic Youth Party27,2250.3
Invalid/blank votes339,010103,245
Total10,791,21510010,111,559100
Registered voters/turnout18,449,34458.518,316,10455.2
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) 3,798,607 37.2 57
Justice and Truth Alliance (Alianţa Dreptate si Adevăr) 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+PUR3,730,35236.61132–23
Justice and Truth Alliance3,191,54631.33112+51
Greater Romania Party1,316,75112.9248–36
Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania628,1256.1722–5
New Generation Party227,4432.2300
Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party188,2681.850New
Democratic Force Party of Romania79,3760.780New
Ecologist Party of Romania73,0010.7200
Social Democratic Roma Party of Romania56,0760.5510
Romanian National Unity Party53,2220.520
People's Action Party48,1520.470New
United Socialist Party44,4590.440New
Democratic Forum of Germans36,1660.3510
Romanian Workers' Party35,2780.350New
Union for Romanian Reconstruction32,7490.320New
Socialist Alliance Party28,4290.280New
Romanian Socialist Party28,0340.2800
National Christian Democratic Party27,6500.270New
New Democracy Party20,9260.210New
Social Democratic Party "Constantin Titel Petrescu"20,3180.2000
People's Alliance of Christian Democrats18,5940.180New
Democratic Youth Party16,2710.160New
Bulgarian Union of Banat–Romania15,2830.1510
Third Millennium Party15,1090.150New
Alliance for a United Romania15,0410.150New
Party for the Motherland14,8820.1500
Union of the Ukrainians of Romania10,8880.1110
Community of the Lippovan Russians in Romania10,5620.1010
Union of Croatians of Romania10,3310.1010
Union of Armenians of Romania9,8100.1010
Association of Macedonians of Romania9,7500.1010
Cultural Association of Slavonic Macedonians of Romania9,5950.090New
Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania8,4490.0810
Democratic Union of Croatians of Romania7,7690.0800
Democratic Turkish Union of Romania7,7150.0810
Ethnic Turks Association7,3960.070New
Hellenic Union of Romania7,1610.0710
Union of Serbs of Romania6,6430.0710
Turco-Muslim Union of Romania6,5170.060New
Democratic Union of Turkish-Muslim Tatars6,4520.0610
Democratic Association of Slavonic Macedonians of Romania6,3440.060New
Bulgarian Cultural Association of Romania6,2400.0600
Association of Italians of Romania6,1680.061New
Democratic Union of Slovaks and Czechs of Romania5,9500.0610
Union of Poles of Romania5,4730.0510
Italian Community of Romania5,1810.050–1
Cultural Union of Poles of Romania5,1590.050New
League of Albanians of Romania5,0110.0510
Bratstvo Community of Bulgarians in Romania4,0650.0400
Cultural Union of Ruthenians of Romania2,8710.0310
People's Party of Romania2,3360.020New
Force of Justice1,1230.010New
Independents51,6460.5100
Invalid/blank votes599,641
Total10,787,450100332–13
Registered voters/turnout18,449,34458.47
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.

References

  1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1616 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
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