The PSD-PNL alliance monopolizes the local public administration

The PSD-PNL alliance monopolized the local public administration in our country after the elections that took place on Sunday, June 9. After the centralization by the Central Electoral Bureau, yesterday, until the close of the edition of almost 70% of the minutes in each electoral district, it appears that the PSD and the PNL are the big winners of the local elections, not only of the European parliamentary ones, at a great distance from competitors from AUR, UDMR and United Right Alliance.

Thus, according to the partial results presented last night by BEC, PSD obtained the most votes for the position of mayor, at the level of the entire country - 39.65%. In second place is the PNL, with 33.75%, and the AUR ranks third, by a long distance, with 5.95% of the votes, followed by the UDMR, with 5.3% of the votes. 3.24% of Romanians voted for mayors of the United Right Alliance, and 2.24% for independent candidates. Partial results for local councils show that PSD is also in first place with 37.06% of the vote, followed by PNL with 30.28% of the vote and AUR with 9.02%. UDMR obtained 6.23% of the votes, and the United Right Alliance only 3.33%.

The results of Sunday's elections were categorized as good by President Klaus Iohannis, according to a statement made yesterday by the head of state following the B9 summit that took place in Riga, Latvia.

Klaus Iohannis said: "In my opinion, even if there were some incidents, the elections went well, and the results speak for themselves. You remember that there were many debates in the public space whether this coalition (ed. - PSD-PNL) is good for Romania or not. I think that this time we received a response even from the voters, who in a very large proportion, almost 50%, voted for the joint list proposed by the coalition. It is correct, after the coalition managed to provide a government that allowed Romania to pass without too much damage through the crises that started exactly with this war waged by Russia against Ukraine. Regarding the local elections, I still consider that it was a good decision to merge with the European Parliament elections, for a clear democratic reason: the elections are legitimate, valid, from a democratic point of view, when a large number of voters participate. The fact that these elections were put together led us to a participation of over 50%, so we can say that it was the right step, and the communities elected their mayors, presidents of county councils, local and county councilors whom they - they thought they were suitable for the next 4 years".

Despite the victory at the local and European level of the PSD-PNL alliance, the figures show for each party separately that, compared to 2020, the PNL lost significant percentages in the local elections, with a deficit recorded that translates into the liberals holding the leadership for 11 county councils, compared to 17 in 2020.

USR also recorded big losses, which compared to the 35 mayors it had in the period 2020-2024 in Bucharest, Timişoara, Braşov, Alba-Iulia and Bacău, but also in smaller cities, found that 20 of them had were now elected from PSD or PNL, after they left that political formation, the most famous name being Gabriel Pleşa, the mayor of Alba-Iulia, who has now become mayor from PNL.

If in the ranks of the PNL the loss suffered at the level of the county councils compared to 2020 did not lead to any change at the top of the party - not even Gheorghe Flutur is shaken from there, although he lost the head of the Suceava County Council, at USR things precipitated after ce Cătălin Drula announced that he is resigning as head of the political formation. He called yesterday, for the period June 24-28, internal elections for the designation of the new president of the USR, who the next day, on June 29, would be confirmed by the participants of the USR Congress as the party's candidate for the presidential elections in September .

• Scandal in Bucharest

The battle for the position of mayor of District 1 of the Capital looks like something out of a bad movie, which would have nothing to look for on the democracy screen in the year 2024. Only the warring parties have an eight-year tradition in the seemingly endless confrontation and in which after the local elections of 2016 and 2020 the score was 1-1. One point each for PSD and Clotilde Armand.

Following the principle of the best of three parties, the fight continued even now, in the local elections of June 9, when Clotilde Armand refused to recognize the initial count that gave her a few hundred votes behind the liberal George Tuţă, the candidate of the PSD-PNL Alliance for the position of mayor of Sector 1.

That is why she asked for a recount of the vote and drew up several criminal complaints, after Clotilde also requested on Monday the suspension until Tuesday of the recording of the minutes from the polling stations by the members of the District 1 Electoral Office, suspension that intervened, and overnight the bags with the ballots were guarded by the gendarmes. But surprise, yesterday morning, Clotilde Armand asked for the votes to be recounted because she says that overnight certain bags were unsealed by the PSD representatives to cover up their election fraud. Basically, the scenario from 2020 is being repeated, when Clotilde Armnand was accused by former mayor Dan Tudorache - PSD - of walking around in bags with ballots.

Clotilde Armand declared: "I filed a criminal complaint against the PSD representative in the District 1 Electoral Office, Mr. Alexandru-Constantin Enăchescu. He was caught in the hallway of Voting Section no. 34 from the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine how, together with several members of the polling station, they unsealed the bags full of ballots and walked in them. They were covering their tracks. (...) Minutes are intentionally wrongly drawn up and do not represent the number of votes in the sealed bags. For this reason, it is important to recount, transparently, face to face with all the candidates and with observers from NGOs. That is what they want to do now, and for this reason I requested a recount. They are afraid because other numbers will come out. (...) At section no. 144, the PNL-PSD candidate had 227 votes and I had 193. Now PSD has 227 and I only have 6 votes. They published a wrongly completed minutes on the AEP website and not signed by anyone. And there are many more like that. That is why they must be recounted. In Sector 2 they refused the recount. I hope they don't do it here. However, if they have nothing to hide and lose, why would they refuse the recount?".

According to a press release issued yesterday by the PNL Sector 1 organization, George Tuţă won the elections for the Sector 1 City Hall.

For his part, George Tuţă said: "The numbers don't lie. The people voted for the rebuilding of the "capital" of the Capital. Any calculation shows all this. No one can return the vote cast by the citizens of Sector 1".

After this scandal, one also appeared in Sector 2, where the incumbent mayor Radu Mihaiu, from USR, also disputed the result of the local elections, stating that the centralization of the minutes and the preparation of some of them would be erroneous, and therefore Rareş Hopincă won the elections from the PSD. Radu Mihaiu also filed a criminal complaint in which he accuses that at a polling station, instead of the 333 votes he received being reported, they were placed in the right of the SOS candidate and he was passed the 47 votes received by that candidate.

Radu Mihaiu stated: "I thought that the situation in Sector 2 could be closed in a civilized manner, but the abuses are already unacceptable. We file a criminal complaint against the District 2 Electoral Office for abuse of office and incitement to falsify public documents. The law cannot be trampled on for political interests! One cannot forcefully pass over the commission in the ward which declares in writing that the result is flagrantly flawed. We can see with the naked eye how they are trying to defraud the elections in Sector 2, we will extend the complaints to several sections where the entire voting process was called into question, with pre-stamped ballots on the day of the vote, with control keys that do not were closing, with pressure on the sleepless presidents. And worst of all, on the closed polling stations (many forced), there are 504 votes cast that are nowhere to be found. I repeat, to be clear, 504 people voted, but their option does not appear in any way".

However, representatives of the Police and Gendarmerie declared yesterday that the electoral process took place under normal conditions in Sector 1 and Sector 2, without major incidents. The situation still remains unclear in the two sectors and its definitive solution is expected after the centralization of all minutes.