English
The stealing of votes is a generalized symptom, shared by all the political parties and spanning the entire country, so yesterday's elections do not illustrate the preferences of the voters, but rather how effective the stealing methods of each party were.
The methods themselves are localized and tailored to each particular area or region.
Even though the change of the prefects, which was conducted quickly by the Ponta government, makes the vote stealing look organized (the replacement of the county prefects was designed to prevent shady moves from the PDL, implicitly indicating what the USL uses these positions for), the mayoralty candidates adapted their methods to the specific conditions of reach region, the nature of the voters they can reach and their own abilities to provide financial benefits, material benefits or services.
In this article (see also "The systematic electoral rigging - a general study") a typology of the methods used - of which the payment of money (50 -100 lei, but it even went as high as 300 lei for a vote and even more) upon presenting the photo of the voting bulletin is the most widespread method, as well as the appeal to financing from the mob (from freemason lodges to gypsies) - but now we had some never before seen methods, going as far as obtaining votes from the people committed to psychiatric hospitals (the authorities do not have an accurate record of the people suffering from psychiatric disorders who are committed to such institutions).
I chose to present here (without exhausting the topic), actions which in my opinion prove that Romania has a bright future ahead of it.
1. The tax haven
Three mayor friends want to remain mayors and they promised voters they would erase their tax debts, by creating something similar to Luxemburg in the center of the country, .
2. The greenhouse
One candidate from the county of Constanţa has built greenhouses for some citizens (he has already delivered them to six of them) who promised that they would each deliver 20 voters (talk about a large family!).
3. Electoral cops
A mayor who runs for another term, used cops to distribute food in various neighborhoods, through policemen.
4. Persuasive schoolchildren
The principal of a school gave the pupils of a school food and clothes with political branding, to convince their parents to vote for him in the elections for the County Council.
5. The gipsy Olympics
A. Taken to the restaurant by bus, 50 gypsies had a lavish party, paid for by a mayoral candidate on June 7th (even though it wasn't the birthday of any of them).
B. In another town, about 1,000 gypsies benefit from a line of credit (between 100 and 500 lei) extended by the candidate running for mayor.
C. The discrimination of the gypsies is real, because in comparison with the benefits granted to the former, the gypsies are being blackmailed by a buyer of scrap iron in order to vote for a specific candidate, or else be left with no one to sell their scrap iron to (I think the case should be reported to the European Commission, to ensure the fair treatment of gypsies all over the country).
D. Also, a leader of the gypsies in the county of Harghita, is discriminating against his peers for racial reasons (he calls them "gypsies"), by blackmailing them into voting for the Hungarian candidate he is supporting, he would then cut their funds from Hungary, offered to the pupils who take Hungarian classes, which the gypsy pupils are also entitled to.
E. For the gypsies of a specific town, the elections represent the opportunity to get back their ID cards, which were held as collateral by a food store owned by the local councilman who wants to become a mayor (now that's more like it!).
F. In Rahova, on Saturday, the gypsies were summoned to attend a training on how to vote, for 100 lei each, in an organized and disciplined manner.
G. Sets of 200 of voting bulletins already stamped with votes in favor of his countercandidates were prepared against Vanghelie by Gypsy leaders and mob bosses, and distributed to each of their agents, who would then pay 50 lei to every voter willing to put something like that in the ballot box, by returning the unstamped voting bulletin; in turn, every "secret agent" gets 50 lei for each blank voting bulletin.
H. But Marian Vanghelie, the mayor of the 5th district has the benefit of his major recent accomplishments in District 5:
- the unlocking of the budget (last week) for the retroactive granting of the educational, merit and social scholarships, for the first four months of 2012;
- gift vouchers paid for by the local council;
- electronics and money offered as prizes, on June 6th, to a number of 650 pupils, declared "as international Olympians" (causing District 5 to have more Olympians than the entire country!);
- each member of the families which have a child recorded as "needing welfare", received 100 lei;
- etcaetera (I've gotten bored, I live in District 1).
6. The face-stuffing (the food fight)
Each of the two rivals in the race for becoming mayor offered a meal to 150 voters - the poor folks are getting confused, what should they go for: cabbage and meat rolls or the spicy meatballs?!
7. There's more where that came from
One dude realized that he needs 400 votes, so he made a deal with a Turkish businessman to offer all 400 people a meal on Sunday.
8. The good son
The clerk of a County Center of the APIA (the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture) is the son of a guy who promised peasants that he would make sure they get farming subsidies, if they elect him as mayor.
9. The school of Ardeal
A. A real person from the Transylvania region makes sure that he gets the votes of his citizens, by paying them 100 lei in advance each, using a sheet with the signature for each, with the outstanding balance of 150 lei to be paid if he becomes mayor.
B. Another has him beat: he calls his voters to pay them using deeds certified by the notary!
10. The tithe
Another of the candidates running for mayor distributed branded mugs to the unemployed and to other people in trouble; except he put 100 lei in every tenth mug.
11. Breaking Hippocrates oath (aka you pay and you vote)
A commune of the county of Satu Mare has doctors that offer free care to people who vote with the "right" candidate; in turn, the doctors get the central heating installed free of charge in their offices and the street asphalted, paid for by the City Hall - hocus-pocus, it's all free, the people pay for it.
12. Bessarabia is Romania
A. One political party asked the Bessarabean leader from a region in Western Romania to provide it with a list of the people originating from the Republic of Moldova, to provide them with Romanian ID cards within 3 days, as long as they vote "with the right candidates";
B. Starting in January, in the county of Timiş the students with dual citizenship (Romanian and Moldavian) have the opportunity (provided by the president of Bessarabian organization), to earn their right to reside in Romania, provided they vote right.
13. The sole (the joke with the chair pulled out from underneath)
I opted not to lump this one together with the "Gypsy Olympics" (even though it still concerns them), because it is completely original: the clever guy running for mayor will pay the gypsies 300-500 lei each, to withhold their ID cards on the day of the vote, knowing that they would vote with his rival.
14. A sermon for the voters
Some priests guided their flock according to their interests: some told them to vote for the candidate of the PDL, according to the Gospel by Mark; others, to vote for the candidate of the USL, according to the Gospel by Matthew; some were told to vote for the candidate of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania, according to the gospel of Luke; for the independents, they kept the gospel of John; the non-canonical Gospels were not used, to avoid encouraging voters from straying from the righteous path.
I'll stop here.
I won't elaborate on the variations of these methods and I will not give in to the temptation to mention the fluctuation of the price of votes per country and on a national level.
I think I've more than justified the title of the article and the unpleasant illustration (sorry!).
And concerning the title: poet Ana Blandiana recently used the incomprehensible manner in which the Turkish word "hazna" (which means "treasure"), to illustrate her theory that Romanians "are frivolous" (as in, unreliable), an opinion which is similar to the one of philosopher Constantin Rădulescu Motru, uttered years before.
My dear lady, don't you think that it is in fact lucidity?
The dirt described in this article more than clearly proves it.
Euro
Dolar SUA
Franc elveţian
Liră sterlină
Gram de aur
