Romanian legislative election, 2004
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Romania |
 This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Other countries • Politics Portal |
The Romanian legislative election of 2004 was held on November 28, 2004. 137 seats in the Senate of Romania and 314 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were up for election.
The 2004 legislative election was held simultaneously with the presidential election. According to the 2003 amendment to the Romanian Constitution, the presidential term is now five years instead of four, meaning that in the future, legislative and presidential elections will be held separately, only coinciding every 20 years (2024, 2044, etc.).
Contents |
[edit] Contenders
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.
[edit] Election result
| Parties and alliances | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
National Union PSD+PUR (Uniunea Naţională PSD+PUR)
|
3,730,352 | 36.8 | 132
|
Justice and Truth Alliance (Alianţa Dreptate şi Adevăr)
|
3,191,546 | 31.5 | 112
|
| Greater Romania Party (Partidul România Mare) | 1,316,751 | 13.0 | 48 |
| Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (Uniunea Democratică Maghiară din România) | 628,125 | 6.2 | 22 |
| New Generation Party (Partidul Noua Generaţie) | 227,443 | 2.2 | - |
| Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (Partidul Naţiional Ţărănesc Creştin Democrat) | 188,268 | 1.8 | - |
| Social Democratic Roma Party of Romania (Partida Romilor Social Democrată din România) | 1 | ||
| Democratic Forum of Germans of Romania (Forumul Democrat al Germanilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Union of Armenians of Romania (Uniunea Armenilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Association of Italians of Romania (Asociaţia Italienilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Bulgarian Union of the Banat - Romania (Uniunea Bulgară din Banat - România) | . | 1 | |
| Greek Union of Romania (Uniunea Elenă din România) | . | 1 | |
| Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania (Federaţia Comunităţilor Evreieşti din România) | . | 1 | |
| Lipovenian Rusian Comunity of Romania (Comunitatea Ruşilor Lipoveni din România) | . | 1 | |
| Union of Croatians of Romania (Uniunea Croaţilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| League of Albanians of Romania (Liga Albanezilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Democratic Union of Turco-Islamic Tatars of Romania (Uniunea Democrată a Tătarilor Turco-Musulmani din România | . | 1 | |
| Union of Ukrainians of Romania (Uniunea Ucrainienilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Union of Slavonic Macedonians of Romania (Asociaţia Macedonenilor Slavi din România) | . | 1 | |
| Union of Serbs of Romania (Uniunea Sârbilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Cultural Union of Ruthenians of Romania (Uniunea Culturală a Rutenilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Turkish Democratic Union of Romania (Uniunea Democrată Turcă din România) | . | 1 | |
| Democratic Union of Slovaks and Czechs in Romania (Uniunea Democratică a Slovacilor şi Cehilor din România) | . | 1 | |
| Union of Poles of Romania Dom Polski (Uniunea Polonezilor din România 'Dom Polski') | . | 1 | |
| Total (turnout 56.5%) | 332 | ||
| Source: Biroul Electoral Central | |||
Apart from the deputy seats up for grabs in the election, each ethnic minority group that has not gained representation in Parliament will be given one deputy seat - 18 seats in total.
| 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%) | 147 | |||||
| Source: Biroul Electoral Central | ||||||
[edit] Controversies
The opposition has 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 November 30 that they demanding a re-run of the election, because some of the void votes were allegedly awarded to PSD. They shown evidence that some people voted more than once (they found about 750 persons in three counties, but their search in the supplementary lists would continue) and also shown 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 votants, 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 it started a parallel counting, which shows a difference of only 2% between the two parties.
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, PSD had 43%, while DA had 23% while in the precincts with least votes on supplementary lists, PSD had 30%, while DA had 34%. The same trend was true in the precincts with most void votes. It has been argued that this could not be due to pure hazard, and therefore the election fraud was real. [1]
[edit] Government formation
No party holds an absolute majority, although PSD+PUR with UDMR and the other minorities hold a bare majority in the Chamber of the Deputies. 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 he will remain with PSD. It has been suggested by the press that this could be result of a blackmail about his communist past. By December 25 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.
[edit] External links
- (Romanian) Central Electoral Bureau
- BBC News - Fraud worries in Romanian poll
- OSCE election report (PDF, 350 KiB)
