Saint Nicholas, a vote a dozen

It"s all happening all over again: endless lines before the ballot boxes, allegations of fraud, votes bought using money or gifts, complaints with the Police...

Lines of buses were replaced with off-road or regular vehicles. Voter turnover was high since the first hours, which says a lot about what was at stake in yesterday"s elections. As the parties involved in the electoral competition switched to using cars instead of buses for "voter tourism", news channels came up with a gimmick. After being fined for their behavior in the first round of elections, when moderators would tell viewers to visit network websites to view poll estimates, one of the TV stations has brought Saint Nicholas forward: the percentage of votes for each candidate was replaced by the cost of renting out Saint Nicholas, which would fluctuate from one hour to the next, between orange and red (the color of the two major competing political factions). Another news channel outright said which candidate was in the lead, without providing any numbers. Mircea Geoană had received a large number of votes by noon, going ahead of Traian Băsescu, but estimates showed that things were becoming more balanced, just as they did five years ago. Judging by the experience of the previous elections, voters of the Liberal-Democratic Party tend to vote in the evening. How many supporters did the parties convince to go out and vote during the last two or three hours of the voting day? How many of the undecided voters who picked Antonescu during the first round actually voted yesterday? These two variables could bring surprises after the official count, regardless of what the polls were saying yesterday.