ROMANIA’S BIGGEST opposition party is demanding a re-run of Sunday’s presidential election after filing allegations of widespread vote fraud with the country’s constitutional court.
Social Democrat (PSD) challenger Mircea Geoana lost the hard-fought ballot by less than 1 per cent to incumbent Traian Basescu, prompting the party to accuse the president’s allies of rigging an election which Romanians had hoped would end a damaging political impasse.
“I won this election,” Mr Geoana declared yesterday. “In two days, the constitutional court will decide whether we have five years of a Basescu regime of fraud, lying and manipulation, or if the Romanian people will have a chance to re-run the election.”
Mr Basescu has rejected the allegations, and accused Mr Geoana of trying to manipulate the ballot with the help of supporters in media and business. Monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe gave broad approval to the election.
Final results gave Mr Basescu 50.3 per cent of the votes and Mr Geoana 49.7 per cent, leaving them separated by just 70,000 of the 11 million votes cast. “We have truckloads of evidence,” said senior PSD member Liviu Dragnea, who claimed the party knew of 13,000 cases of multiple voting. “I am convinced the evidence we have and we are still receiving is sufficient to allow the constitutional court to accept our request to annul the second round of the presidential election.”
Romanians greeted news of the court challenge with a mixture of resignation and despair.
Government decision-making has been paralysed since October, when the PSD broke ranks with allies of Mr Basescu and left them to rule alone in a minority government. The PSD has since blocked Mr Basescu’s candidates for prime minister, and he has refused to nominate a candidate supported by a majority in parliament.
The deadlock prompted the International Monetary Fund to postpone payment of the latest tranche of a €20 billion emergency loan, which Romania needs to offset the impact of an economic crisis that has plunged a booming economy into recession.
The combative Mr Basescu and his allies are expected to struggle to form a new majority government, but he is seen as more likely than the conciliatory Mr Geoana to implement tough cost-cutting and anti-corruption measures demanded by the EU.