EU to keep an eye on upcoming Romanian elections

In a carefully-worded statement, the EU has made it clear that
it will be closely watching Romania’s run-off
elections on 12 December. The comment follows claims of
vote-rigging in the first round.

The EU has “taken note” of allegations of electoral fraud in
Romania’s presidential and parliamentary vote on 28 November and
“will be following the substantiation of these allegations, also in
light of the evaluation of the continued fulfilment of the
Copenhagen criteria”, said DG Enlargement spokeswoman Krisztina
Nagy. She added that the Commission would like to see the new
Romanian government formed “rapidly” to ensure that the country
“continues on the path of reforms in order to fulfil all the
criteria for EU membership in a timely fashion”.

The EU statement came as Romania’s election authorities released
the official final results of the vote, which gave the ruling
Social Democrats (PSD) of Prime Minister Adrian Nastase 36.6%,
followed by the Liberal Democrat Justice and Truth alliance of
Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu, with 31.3%. In the presidential
race, Nastase took the first round with 40.9% of the vote, ahead of
Basescu’s 33.9%. The run-off vote is scheduled for 12
December. 

The announcement of the final results officially ended the row
over possible fraud.

The EU’s carefully-worded statement also coincided with a
broadly positive report on Romania’s progress from the Parliament’s
Foreign Affairs Committee. 

The allegations of electronic vote-rigging originated within
Basescu’s camp, who had demanded a re-run of the elections.
However, the elections bureau has rejected the demand, and Basescu
said that he would bow to official rulings on the validity of the
vote.

Earlier, the Parliament’s Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for
Europe (ALDE) said in a statement that “the EU must act decisively
to verify the election results in Romania. Otherwise the orange
banners on the streets of Kiev will be replicated in
Bucharest”.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
said that overall the elections were conducted “professionally”
despite some problems that should be fully investigated. 

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