Romanian Referendum To Downsize Parliament Dominant Issue Of Elections Campaign – OSCE Report

The report, published Monday, also criticized the amending of electoral legislation a short while before elections, describing it as constitutionally problematic.

"The election campaign is unfolding against the backdrop of a governmental crisis. While active and to a degree based on candidates' platforms, it is largely dominated by the referendum issue. While free from major incidents and hindrances, the campaign has also seen instances of strong language and negative campaign materials, at times anonymous," the report's executive summary said.

As regards the campaign environment, the report said most candidates are touring the country in order to get their message to the electorate. "While candidates present their political platforms to the voters, focusing on the economic crisis, social policy, and proposals to resolve the current political stalemate, the referendum has become the most prominent and controversial issue in this campaign and is largely dominating it. President Basescu's campaign in particular puts a strong stress on the proposed parliamentary reform, which has been strongly criticized as a populist move by his competitors and other interlocutors, both in public and in their meetings with the OSCE/ODIHR LEOM," the report said.

On the other hand, the document criticizes the fact that the law on presidential elections was amended through a Government Ordinance in September 2009. "Amending election legislation shortly before elections is not in line with good electoral practices, and doing so by means of emergency ordinance may raise constitutional issues," the report's summary said.

The interim report also notes that "Candidates from non-parliamentary parties complained during their meetings with the OSCE/ODIHR LEOM that the election legislation, and in particular its implementation, favors the parties represented in the Parliament, e.g. with regard to campaign financing provisions and representation on election-administration bodies."

"Candidates of non-parliamentary parties and independent candidates also said that they were at a disadvantage in terms of media access and media coverage, as well as due to local administrations being loyal to major political parties."

The cited source also said that more than 18 million voters are registered in the voter lists, and citizens who are away from their place of residence on election day can vote in one of 3,360 special polling stations. "Despite measures to prevent multiple voting, including monitoring cameras at special polling stations and post factum checks of supplementary lists used in special polling stations, several interlocutors have raised their concerns that such irregularities may nonetheless occur," the report said.

OSCE said that, accepting the invitation received through Romania's Mission to the OSCE, it established a Limited Election Observation Mission (LEOM) on 27 October. "The LEOM, led by Vadim Zhdanovich, consists of an 11-member core team based in Bucharest and 14 long-term observers who were deployed on 4 November to Bucharest and six regional centers around the country."

The report said the constitutional referendum will only be assessed by OSCE/ODIHR "to the extent that it has an impact on the conduct of the presidential election."

"In line with standard practice for LEOMs, the mission will not carry out a systematic or comprehensive observation of the voting, counting and tabulation on election day, but mission members will visit a limited number of polling stations across the country to follow procedures.", the report said.

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