Contrary to the skeptics, the turnout exceeded that of four years ago

The democratic exercise of voting seems to be taking root also among Romanian citizens, if we take into account the fact that, in yesterday's combined European parliamentary and local elections, a better participation percentage was recorded than five years ago, in the polls of 26 May 2019.

Thus, at 10:00 p.m., at the close of the edition, according to the data on the website of the Permanent Electoral Authority, the turnout for the local elections was 49.93%, while the turnout for the European Parliament elections was 52.2% , the largest since our accession to the EU.

The increase in the voting participation of citizens cannot be attributed only to the merger of the European parliamentarians with the local ones, the latter types of elections being known to have a higher turnout, because through the prism of the data recorded yesterday in real time by the Permanent Electoral Authority, throughout the day, participation in voting for the European Parliament was consistently above that for the elections for mayors, local councilors, county councilors and presidents of county councils.

Through the lens of this fact, we could say that the voters have become aware that the decisions from Strasbourg and Brussels influence not only the internal politics of the member states, but what happens with the daily life of everyone, and in the face of constant threats to the European Union and NATO coming from Moscow, the only viable alternative is for our country to remain in the EU bloc.

If in May 2019, during the European Parliament elections, the citizens wanted to sanction the way of doing politics of what was called PSDragnea among public opinion, in June 2024 the PSD-PNL governing coalition was not sanctioned in the European Parliament vote, but only in voting for local elections. The coherent, pro-European speech of the leaders of the two political formations caught the voters of the two major parties at the table, despite the high percentage that it seems, following the first estimates, that the AUR candidates would have obtained. A surprise in these elections is the exemplary mobilization of supporters of the United Right Alliance, the three political formations led by Cătălin Drula, Ludovic Orban and Eugen Tomac managing to mobilize their electoral pools to go out to vote and to ensure them a promising percentage regarding presidential and parliamentary elections that will take place in the second half of the year.

With regard to the European Parliament elections, citizens with the right to vote had to choose between 12 political formations and electoral alliances, as well as four independent candidates who participated in the election to occupy the 33 MEP positions. In total, there were 494 candidates, of which 327 are men and 167 are women, according to the Permanent Electoral Authority.

If we refer to the local elections, at the national level there were 207,389 candidates, i.e. almost four candidates for the position of local councillor, county councillor, mayor or chairman of the county council. A quarter of the candidates in the local elections - 51,438 - are from the Social Democratic Party (PSD). In second place are the liberals (PNL), with almost 51,000. The PSD-PNL alliance, established in the spring of this year, has 843 candidates throughout the country. The main localities where the two parties go with the same candidate are the municipalities of Braşov, Timişoara, Bacău and Gheorgheni (Harghita County), as well as in all six sectors of the Capital.

• Political leaders asked voters to go to the polls

The political leaders, headed by President Klaus Iohannis, showed up at the polling stations from the first part of the day to express their choice in relation to one party or another, with one candidate or another.

President Klaus Iohannis voted at the "Jean Monnet" High School in the Capital, and at the end he declared: "Today is an important day. A day when we elect those who lead the communities in which we live and elect those who represent us in the European Parliament. I voted and I invite you all to vote! It is extremely important."

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, PSD president voted in the morning in Buzău for "a valuable team that knew how to implement projects, especially European projects, both at the level of the municipality of Buzău and at the level of the County Council". The social-democratic leader specified: "I voted Romanian, I voted for a strong voice in the European Parliament." After exercising his right to vote, the PSD leader went to Bucharest to be with the social-democratic candidate for the Capital City Hall, Gabriela Firea, when she went to the polling station for to express their options.

The President of the Senate, Nicolae Ciucă, head of the PNL, declared that he voted "for everything that means Romanian identity, for a strong Romania in a united Europe, for Romania's European path - a path from which we must not deviate regardless how much noise is made". He stated that yesterday's elections represented a decisive moment for the future of the country, "a future that can be of development, of security, or it can be of stagnation or chaos".

Cătălin Drula, the president of USR - a political formation that is a member of the United Alliance alongside Forţa Dreptei and PMP, said that he voted "for the continuation of the modernization of cities and towns that are run honestly and where mafias no longer have access". He warned that the main enemies of future nation-building are the distrust and disillusionment that has gripped the electorate in recent years.

His alliance colleague, Ludovic Orban, the president of the Forţa Dreptei Party, declared that every vote is important, because by uniting all the votes, we can create "the critical mass that can change things for the better when things don't work as they should". He stated that people will go to the polls through the prism of citizens' dissatisfaction with rising prices, the treatment given to them by the authorities, with increasing taxes and fees, with the lack of perspective for young people.

Former Prime Minister and European Commissioner Dacian Cioloş said that his vote was given for competent and hard-working people in the local administration, but also at the European level, while European Deputy Mihai Tudose, former Social-Democratic Prime Minister, said that he voted for the continuation projects and for the European option of our country, with the conviction that the voters "will not be fooled by vain promises and chimeras".

George Simion, the president of AUR, who voted for the European Parliament at the "Gheorghe Lazăr" National College in the Capital, said that he voted for change, for the future and said that he hopes that the election will be a fair one.

Hunor Kelemen, president of the UDMR, said he wanted a large turnout because the party he leads needs at least 500,000 votes to reach the 5% threshold needed to enter the European Parliament.

The deputy general secretary of NATO, Mircea Geoană, urged the over one million young people, who were able to vote for the first time in these elections, to exercise their right to vote because "it is a very complicated moment in the history of Europe".

The former president Traian Băsescu stated: "If the result of the vote will be beyond the vote for the current power and a strong opposition, it means that the democratic balance will be able to be maintained. If a huge discrepancy is created between power and the opposition's capacity to generate debate, there is a risk that we will move towards a stability that we see in non-democratic states".

• Irregularities and allegations of fraud

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has mobilized, for the two types of elections, approximately 42,800 employees throughout the country to maintain order and public safety and to ensure the protection measures of the polling stations. Also, at the national level, an action was organized to verify the way of carrying out the transport of people, an action in which more than 1,600 police officers with approximately 850 technical means were involved.

However, the electoral process was not without incidents. Thus, if at 11 a.m., the MAI announced that it had registered in the early hours of the morning 73 notifications related to the elections and among them criminal files were opened for 11 possible crimes, at 5 p.m., 722 notifications were received regarding possible violations of laws. Of these, 273 have not been confirmed, and 86 are still being verified at the time of publication.

Following the notifications, 226 contraventional sanctions were applied: 112 warnings and 114 fines in the amount of over 126,000 lei.

At the same time, by 5 p.m., the number of criminal investigation files opened for possible electoral crimes increased to 165.

Among the problems found by the police in the first part of the day, there were already stamped ballots, as was the case in a polling station in Sector 2 of the Capital, the ballots being already stamped for the PSD-PNL Alliance candidates, but and the disappearance of some stamps, minutes signed in white, assaults inside the polling stations, etc.

That's why Eugen Tomac, Cătălin Drula and Ludovic Orban, the leaders of the opposition formation Alianţa Dreapta Unită, declared yesterday in a press conference that the political power is preparing a "massive vote fraud through the existence of pre-stamped ballots". The opposition leaders gave as examples the sections 190, 311 and 329 in Bucharest, voting sections in Râmnicu Sărat, Apahida, Ciorogârla and Cîmpeni. Eugen Tomac stated that in a locality in the country, a citizen requested the mobile ballot box for 32 people born in 1933 and, when the members of the polling station asked him for proof that those people are alive, the voter gave up the request.

The representatives of AUR and those of SOS - political formation whose leader is Diana Şoşoăca, but even some liberal candidates - also complained about election fraud. Thus, Mario de Mezzo - the PNL candidate for mayor of Slatina - accused PSD members of rigging the elections by influencing and intimidating voters on voting day. Instead, those from the PSD Slatina accused Mario de Mezzo of dislocating the shoulder of the social democratic candidate for the position of local councilor, Emil Popa, following an incident between the two that allegedly took place in a polling station . The PNL candidate later stated that the said incident ended without consequences and even made available to the media a video in which it is observed that after the dispute, the social democrat had no problem at hand. However, the photos from the hospital with the PSD candidate would prove the latter right.

Another problem was pointed out by the Expert Forum and it concerns the extra printed ballots. In total, 19,766 ballots were requested, 9,857 for the local council and 9,909 for the mayor, for a number of 54 localities, from 8 counties. It is not clear why there is a difference in some localities between the two types of ballots. Most bulletins were printed in Caraş Severin and Mehedinţi, counties in which Expert Forum showed that in the last elections a significant number of people registered their residence here. It is also interesting that these counties are clustered geographically, which may show concerted settlement actions.

Among those sanctioned was the mayor of Constanţa, Vergil Chiţac, who, within two days, was fined for non-compliance with the decisions of the Permanent Electoral Authority regarding the organization of yesterday's election. More precisely, Chiţac set up only three ballot boxes in each section, although according to the legislation there had to be five: one for the election of the mayor, one for the local council, one for the county council, one for the election of the president of the county council and one for the European Parliament elections. The mayor justified his decision, which is illegal in terms of the economy achieved in the local budget.