The paper analyzes the dynamics of electoral participation and its predictors in Romania, using both official data on turnout and post-electoral survey data. The turnout in the Romanian parliamentary elections has declined by over 50% in the last 20 years of democratic reconstruction. However, turnout decline is unevenly distributed, being more dramatic in the last decade especially in the urban areas as well as among younger cohorts of voters. The decline of turnout in parliamentary elections is also accompanied by a shift in the importance of the predictors of voting. The analyses of electoral participation and its predictors suggest that voting in the Romanian parliamentary elections has become the attribute of a minority of citizens who still feel closer to a political party, are interested in politics, trust the political institutions and leaders, ideologically place themselves at the extremes of the left-right axis, and of those who are more exposed to mobilization attempts both because they live in smaller communities in the rural areas which are more easily controlled by local political leaders and because they are part of social networks that are influenced by political parties or politicians. This is the "hard core" of a generally apathetic electorate which is unconfident in the efficacy of elections as a tool for producing social transformations, a public which is becoming less and less demanding with the politicians after the subsequent disappointments with the democratic governance after 1989.
This article tests if the democratization process in Central and Eastern Europe coincides with a decrease in number of invalid votes. Using descriptive statistics, we seek for evidence from 67 elections in ten countries from the regions during the period 1990-2012. By the beginning of the 2000s, ten years after the breakdown of communist regime, the percentages of invalid votes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe reached levels comparable to those of the Western European democracies. However, significant differences between regions and countries endure. This article adds to the literature by being the first to inquire into the subject of invalid votes in the Central and Eastern Europe.
Since 1992, in the wake of the first elections held in May 1990 and the adoption of a Constitution in 1991, parliamentary and local elections have been held every four years. Romanian electorate voted six times in presidential elections and seven times in referenda (referenda were more numerous than the ones organized during the whole modern history of the country). Reinvented in 1989, Romanian political parties had to pass all these tests. The main purpose of the article is to give a comprehensive, systematic and detailed view on Romanian parties' performance, both in terms of votes and mandates. Therefore, data is organized following four main criteria: legal status, the mobilization in electoral competitions, parliamentary status, and participation to government.
The first elections to which the Romanians from all the united historical provinces took part were the parliamentary elections of November 2-8, 1919. The elections were held on the basis of the articles of a new electoral law that introduced the universal vote in the electoral practice in Romania. Thus, the Romanian rural area has become an attractive electoral basin for the political parties. Subsequently, the extension of voting rights for women also made the rural area a constant provider of votes for the candidates of political parties in both parliamentary and local elections. The first election exercise under the conditions of an extended electoral space was the local elections of February-March 1930, which were held in stages. On February 5, 1930 elections were held at the county level, and between February 9 and March 16, 1930 at the level of communes. In the communes with several villages the elections for the local councils took place on the days of 9-12 February, in the ones with a single village between 9-12, 16-19, 23-26 February and 2-4 March, and in the cities and municipalities on March 14 and 16, 1930. On February 5, 1930 elections were held for the Cahul County Council. But, the results and the way of conducting the elections were contested. On February 21, 1930, the local review committee of Chișinau admitted the contest against the elections of February 5, 1930 of the Cahul County Council and invalidated the respective elections. The Minister of the Interior Theodor C. Marinescu by his telegram from April 30, 1930 ordered the Local Ministerial Director III Chisinau to comply with the order of the Ministry of Interior no. 1972 of April 2, 1930 and to dispose, according to art. 388 of Law 167/1929 "the convening of the electoral body for the election of the Cahul county council, whose election was invalidated, necessarily until June 1, 1930". In the circumstances created, the Local Ministerial Director III Chișinau ordered the summons of the voters from Cahul county on June 1, 1930, to conduct the county elections. At the new elections on June 1, 1930, only three electoral competitors entered the race, with one less than at the February 5 elections: the National Peasant Party with two lists and the Liberal Party with a list. On the electoral lists for the participation in the county elections of June 1, 1930, 40,403 voters were included in the 15 polling stations. 24,153 voters participated in the elections, which constitutes 59.78% of the total number of those included in the lists. A considerable number of votes - 1,050, were canceled, and 287 declared void. The number of legally cast votes was 22,816. In the result of the election the electoral competitors obtained the following results: The National-Peasant Party, on both lists - 17,903 votes or 78.47% of the legally expressed votes and the Liberal Party - 4,913 votes or 21.53% of the legally expressed votes. The elections of June 1 in the Cahul county council were held under the conditions that the National-Peasant Party had achieved an absolute victory in the other counties of the country - 81.77% of the county councilors' mandates. The meeting to establish the Cahul County Council took place on July 27, 1930. The Cahul County Council elected, for a period of 5 years, as president of the Delegation of the county council the lawyer S. Botezatu, who obtained 19 votes out of 30. Members of the delegation of the county council were elected councilors V.Uzun, C. Rădulescu, Gh. Chirciu and A. Sprînceană. With the validation of the county councilors and the legal constitution of the county council's governing bodies, we can consider that the epic of elections for the county council in 1930 were completed.
Exit poll conducted on 2017 inhabitants of the city. He measured the votes cast in the local elections in Drobeta at the City Hall, the Local Council, the County Council, the Presidency of the County Council.
Exit-poll made on 538 inhabitants of the city. He measured the votes cast in the local elections in Eforie at the City Hall, the Local Council, the County Council, the Presidency of the County Council.
Exit-poll made on 1485 inhabitants of the city. He measured the votes cast in the local elections in Râmnicu Sărat at the City Hall, the Local Council, the County Council, the Presidency of the County Council.
The purpose of this research paper is to assess the causes of the territorial distribution of the votes in Romanian local elections held in 2004. Using an aggregate level statistical analysis, I explore three competing theories. The territorial distribution of votes might be first function of geographical localization, people from Transylvania voting against the ruling party and largely favoring the opposition. Counties supporting the opposition are generally the most developed, least rural and wealthiest counties, but in the same time a number of these counties are located in Transylvania. All the same, people may support effective and accountable politicians in office and sanction the others. Testing the three hypotheses, I find that the economic voting has no empirical evidence. The only significant factor unraveled is the counties' location in Transylvania. This factor continues to be significant even when the relationships are controlled with different local development measures, unraveling a regional voting pattern in Romania.
In the interwar Romanian democracy, the main actor in this political mechanism around which the electoral system and the political parties were rounding was the King. He was designating a party in order to form the government, and afterwards the elections organized by the cabinet were inevitably won by the political party in power. As no party was designated one after another to rule the government, the sequence in power was simply and efficiently ensured. Winning the elections for each party in power was closed related to the voters dedicated to the government, meaning those who were giving their votes to the leading power. And this way, the interwar electoral puzzle was completed. The cohort of voters willing to vote for the government was influenced by many indicators such as cultural (literate) and economic ones, so that the electoral behavior differences between regions like Oltenia and Banat were significant, taking into consideration the economic gaps. Therefore, the electoral comparison between Romania and Dobrudja in the interwar period makes sense.
The article describes the candidacies and the results of the elections for the Mayor of Bucharest of April the 3rd 2005. The author remarks two aspects: none of the candidates of June 2004 "re"-presented himself in front of the electorate; moreover, several parties did not fulfill the legal specification of obtaining 50 thousands votes in the local and the general elections of 2004.
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.
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.
This article is based on three hypotheses. First, the legal requirements for establishing political parties in Romania are among the most restrictive in Europe. Second, electoral participation decreased globaly during the last two decades; however, when a party succeeded in registering and endorsed a non-ideological position, the electoral participation slightly increased; so, if the legal requirements will be relaxed, new parties might emerge and a greater participation to the elections might be taken into consideration. Third, the current legal procedure for registering political parties contradicts the constitutional provisions on the freedom of association and the right to be elected. In the light of this findings, the article suggest a revision of the current legislation.
