The Ballot Counting Roulette

The counting of local ballots has upset many predictions and produced quite a few major surprises. As results kept coming in from various ballot stations, the situation was changing every few hours. In Bacau, for instance, local lord Dumitru Sechelariu only came in second to a PUR candidate. Another noteworthy aspect is that the ballot counting roulette also upset the plans that The PNL-PD Alliance had made for Bucharest, as its candidates for sectorial mayors scored below 50 percent, with the gap separating them from PSD's candidates being much smaller than anticipated by exit polls. Independent candidate Marian Vanghelie did not win the elections in the first round either, although exit polls had said he had scored 59 percent. Obviously, this situation can advantage the Alliance, which is probably hoping to turn the tables in its favor in the second round, with the help of reelected Mayor General Traian Basescu.

As for the rest of the country, PSD won an aggregate 36 percent of the local aldermen's seats, as estimated by The Central Electoral Bureau based on the data available so far. PNL and PD came second, with 15.6 percent and 12.8 percent of the seats in local councils. Thus the combined scored of two allies is close to 30 percent. Significantly, pre-voting polls had overestimated PNL's chances at 20 percent and underestimated PD's chances by two or three percent.

PRM remained the fourth most important political force in Romania, with an approximate score of eight percent of the seats in local councils. PUR, on the other hand, did very well in some counties, such as Bacau, and very poorly in others, where it did not even match the electoral threshold.

The ranking is the same for mayoral offices, as PSD is first with 41.1 percent, followed by PNL with 15.5 percent, PD with 12.6 percent and PRM with seven percent. As for the county councils (the authorities that distribute funds towards communities), PSD scored a smaller percentage than it did in the elections for local councils - 32.7 percent. PNL came second with 15.8 percent, followed by PD with 13 percent, UDMR with 13 percent and PRM with seven percent. The other parties scored below the electoral threshold.

Besides the ardent battle to be fought in the second round of elections for Bucharest's sectors, Cluj City will be a definite highlight. Incumbent mayor Gheorghe Funar (PRM) lost his bid for reelection for the fourth consecutive term as he ranked third after PSD's Ioan Rus (40 percent) and PNL-PD's Emil Boc (35 percent). After 12 years in office, Funar only scored 20 percent - a sign that Cluj citizens have gotten past the ethnic issues that helped Funar stay in office for all these years. Moreover, Funar's chances were drastically diminished by the facts that PSD managed to get votes from the Hungarian minority, while PNL-PD decided to endorse one common candidate. While the Alliance managed to win the battle for Bucharest, PSD will try to compensate the loss by winning Cluj in the second round, a city that it has not had in its "portfolio' before.

As for the regional map of the newly elected administration, PSD won several town in Moldova (including Vaslui and Radauti) plus the seaport-city of Constanta. The dispute for Iasi, Bacau, Piatra Neamt and Arad will be settled in the second round. The Allies on the other hand managed to take control over a few Transylvanian cities such as Dej, Alba Iulia and Baia Mare.

PNTCD's Mayor of Timisoara Gheorghe Ciuhandru was reelected despite the party's minuscule score elsewhere, which proves that the endorsing party does not always count.