After the local elections held in early June, the political parties started intense negotiations, at central and local level, in order to create a majority in the municipal, communal and county councils. The Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea says his party will have the dominant majority, together with its junior partners, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats- ALDE and the National Union for the Progress of Romania- UNPR, in almost 30 of Romanias 41 counties.
The post-election map, dominated by the Social Democrats, actually reflects voters choice. In the local councils, the Social Democrats got 41.39% of the votes, the Liberals got 32.8% and ALDE got 6.22%. In the local councils the same hierarchy has been preserved. Of the 3,184 mayors seats in cities and communes, the Social Democrats got 1,677. They are followed by the Liberals with 1,081 mandates, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania with 195 and ALDE with 64. Although known as the most demanding and sophisticated voters, with pro-rightist options, Bucharesters also voted, for the first time, for a woman mayor, a Social Democratic Party member, senator Gabriela Vranceanu Firea. A former controversial journalist who got involved in politics 4 years ago, she was, according to analysts, the engine that towed the whole party forward and offered the Social Democrats all the mayors seats in Bucharests 6 districts.
But its worth noting that the voter turnout was only 33%, much under the national average of 48%. Moreover, the officials were elected in one single round, the winner being the candidate who got the simple majority of the votes cast. The measure has been criticized by the civil society and the press, as, in the context of a low voter turnout, the mayors may be contested as illegitimate. Commentators also said that Romanians missed the chance to renew a local administration seriously discredited by the many corruption scandals.
Last year alone 14 city mayors, 9 county council presidents and a prefect were prosecuted. In Bucharest anti-corruption prosecutors arrested the general mayor and 4 of the 6 district mayors elected 4 years ago. A paradox for many, in the northwestern city of Baia Mare, a local official, Catalin Chereches, was elected again by two thirds of the voters while he was arrested on charges of corruption. Another recently elected official, Mircia Muntean, the mayor of Deva, in the west, received a 6-year prison sentence immediately after the elections.
In Ramnicu Valcea, in the south, the court invalidated the new mandate of Mircea Gutău who had already lost his right to be elected following a previous sentence. An important test ahead of the legislative elections due in autumn, the local elections show, according to sociological research, that the Social Democrats and the Liberals will continue to fight over political supremacy in Romania. However, the new political parties might create a surprise at the autumn elections, such as the Save Bucharest Union, an NGO turned into a party that has become the 2nd political faction in Bucharest.
(Translated by L. Simion)
