Coincidences or interferences in the electoral process?

Not even 48 hours after Cristian Popescu Piedone, the mayor of Sector 5, publicly announced his candidacy for the position of general mayor of the Capital in the local elections that would take place in June at the same time as the European Parliament elections, the National Integrity Agency issued, yesterday, a press release stating that the mayor was in a conflict of interest, when he signed the provision appointing his son-in-law (according to the first degree) as a member of the Commission for the sale of commercial premises or services that fall under Law no. 550/2002.

"As a result of this fact, he obtained a material benefit (revenue collected in 2021 and 2022) in the total amount of 109,520 lei", it is stated in the press release issued by ANI, which shows that Piedone did not submit to the evaluation file a point of view, in the exercise of the right to defence.

Almost at the same time as the ANI press release, Gabriela Firea-Pandele announced that the PSD Bucharest Organization had unanimously designated her as a candidate for the position of general mayor of the municipality of Bucharest, an announcement that displeased the campaign coordinator of the social democrats, the deputy European Mihai Tudose, former prime minister between June 29, 2017 and January 16, 2018, who told the media: "This is the decision of PSD Bucharest, but what happens at the central level is another discussion. (...) Well, wait a bit, let's measure, let's see, someone can't come and say that that's the candidate because that's what they want. If that candidate does not come out, we measure again, we see how we choose the best solution, the solution desired by the citizens".

Also yesterday, Cristian Popescu Piedone accused ANI of restricting his right to defense, after publicly announcing the report on the alleged conflict of interest, before personally sharing the decision with him. The mayor accuses a series of illegalities and, in addition to the process of contesting the ANI report, he declared that he will sue the institution for the manipulation of the voting intention, given that the report was made public two days after Piedone announced his the intention to run for the Capital City Hall.

The Mayor of Sector 5 said: "I can state that it is extremely suspicious that ANI makes press releases in such a manner, without me having been officially notified of the report, and this happens less than 48 hours later from the moment I announced my candidacy for the position of General Mayor of the Capital".

We remind you that the mayor of Sector 5 was involved in the Collective case, in which he was definitively sentenced, on May 12, 2022, by the Bucharest Court of Appeal to 4 years in prison for abuse of office, a sentence reduced by half compared to the 8-year sentence and 6 months of imprisonment decided by the Bucharest Court. Following the cassation appeal filed by the former mayor of Sector 4, the judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania decided on June 21, 2023 to acquit Cristian Popescu Piedone in the Collective case and, implicitly, release him from prison. He was immediately reinstated as the mayor of Sector 5 by the decision of the prefect of Bucharest. We mention that of all the defendants in the case of the Colectiv tragedy, which took place on October 30, 2015 and resulted in the death of 68 people, only Cristian Popescu Piedone was acquitted and released by the ÎCCJ, the other defendants remained in prison after - the cassation appeal was rejected.

We show that it is not the first time that the state institutions, be they by force or not, suddenly become more active in an election year, in practice several cases have been encountered when they removed some politicians from the electoral race.

We mention here the case of the deputy Ludovic Orban, former prime minister and current president of the political formation Forţa Dreptei, who in 2016 was forcibly removed by the DNA from the race for the position of general mayor of the city of Bucharest, a move that left the corridor free for the same Gabriela-Firea Pandele who became the mayor of the Capital. Investigated by DNA, prosecuted for acts of corruption and sent to court, Ludovic Orban was definitively acquitted on March 5, 2018 by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. But the "evil" (political interference) had been done. Orban was removed from the electoral race on April 11, 2016 when he was placed under judicial control, and Gabriela Firea became general mayor in June 2016.

The situation was repeated in 2019 with Dan Barna, the USR leader, who was running for president. Following a journalistic investigation carried out by the Recorder and notifications received from OLAF, the DNA prosecutors opened a criminal investigation file regarding the fraud of European funds by Dan Barna, in the framework of a project. Of course, that criminal investigation ended without Barna being sent to court, but the impact the news had on the presidential election it was enormous, the USR candidate losing important percentages in the electoral race, where, despite the popularity of his party, he obtained in the first round of the presidential elections only 15% of the votes, ranking third, being overtaken by Klaus Iohannis (37 .5%) and even Viorica Dăncilă (22.7%), the latter entering the second round of the presidential elections that year.

Through the prism of the three cases above and taking into account that the year 2024 is one with four rows of elections - European Parliament, local, presidential and parliamentary -, the question arises whether the feverish activity of the state's force institutions during the election years is a simple coincidence . or an interference in the electoral process.