Six candidates a place in local elections

Over 6 to 1 is the ratio between candidates and the positions for general mayor and councilor that will be appointed Sunday.

The candidates and their parties have until Saturday morning as 7:00 am to organize rallies and meetings with their supporters. The media campaigns, however, ended Thursday night.

Even if in a month’s worth of campaigning there have been 2000 incidents reported, the authorities claim that, compared to previous elections, partisan rage has been somewhat more moderate.

However, the security of all the 80 thousand voting booths in Romania will be secured by 32 thousand employees of the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Over 18 million are expected Sunday to vote for their mayors, local and county councilors and the county council presidents.

The statistics have been provided by the Central Electoral Bureau.

The novelty of this year’s elections for mayors and the county council presidents is that a one-round uninominal voting system will be used.

The candidate with the most votes is automatically the winner.

There won’t be a second election round unless in exceptional situations where two contenders are tied.

Citizens will be given four ballots

The local and county councilors will be voted on party lists.

” In counties voters will be given one ballot for mayor, for the local council, the county council president and for the county council. In Bucharest, they will be given one voting ballot for every district mayor, for local councilor of the district, for mayor of Bucharest and for the general council of the capital ”, said Marian Muhulet, Vice President of the Permanent Electoral Authority.

” The voting process requires an ID card, a provisory ID card, the identity bulletin, a working or diplomatic passport and, for military schools students, a grade book” he added For citizens whose ID cards have expired or who don’t have any whatsoever, the officials tasked with surveying these individuals will extend their schedule in the capital and the rest of the country, including Saturday and Sunday, on election day.

There won’t be any special voting booths in train and auto stations this election.

Nationwide, there are 14,139 candidates registered at the Central Electoral Bureau who are competing for the 3.187 general mayor offices, and 368 candidates for the 41 offices of county council president.

The voting booths will be open Sunday, from 7:00am to 21:00pm.

If there are any persons in the voting facilities after 21:00pm, they will still be allowed to cast their ballots .

Translated by Vlad Nichita
MTTLC, Bucharest University