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I present an analysis of the electorate of the left in Romania in the last 25 years (1990-2014), both longitudinal and comparative. The analysis reveals an electorate that has hardly changed since the early 1990's - it continues to be predominantly poor, old, and rural, with little education, much like the electorate of parties such as the Russian Communist Party or the Hungarian Fidesz. I argue that this profile, and its lack of evolution, is largely a product of the left's (FSN, FSDN, PDSR and PSD) lack of genuine commitment to the institutions and principles of liberal democracy.

The article describes the first elections organized in the Romanian Principalities
based on the Regulamente Organice (a Romanian proto-constitution), namely the
legislative elections for the so-called Adunări Ordinare Obşteşti (Ordinary Public
Assemblies), but also the election of Gheorghe Bibescu as head of state by the
so-called Neobicinuita Obştească Adunare (Extraordinary Public Assembly) in
1842. The article analyzes the genesis of the legal provisions under Russian influence,
but also the vote itself. The author reaches the conclusion that modernization
begins before the 1848 revolution.