Romania will elect the President of Romania for the next five years on Sunday by choosing between Adrian Nastase, the PSD-PUR Union candidate, and Traian Basescu, the PNL-PD Alliance candidate. This is the tightest election race Romania has known after December 1989 and comes at the end of the Ion Iliescu presidential era. Romania has been through an atypical election campaign in which the stakes are very high.
Whichever of the two political leaders that qualified for the runoffs is elected head of state on Sunday, he will have an essential role to play in establishing the relations between the institutions of state. In line with the Constitution, he will be involved in forming the new government and will be able to steer the political balance in times of conflict and impasse. Political cohabitation is not out of the question, either, in which case the future president will have a regular voice in political negotiations and establishing reciprocal monitoring of the institutions of the state.
Pitted against each other are two political leaders of the 1990s' generation, both of whom are seeking to become President for the first time. Political pundits have not dared to pick a winner. Adrian Nastase, 54, is currently leading Traian Basescu, 53, by 700,000 votes after winning 40.9% against Basescu's 33.9% in the first round. It is not yet known how voters who in the first round voted for the ten other candidates are going to vote in the runoffs. The final card will no doubt be played at the polls on Sunday.
One of the best moments of the campaign was the live debate between the two remaining candidates on TVR1 (national television station) on Wednesday night. The debate attracted an audience of 1.4 million viewers, with the "golden minute" (moment of audience peak) registered at 10.59 p.m. when 1.689 million Romanians were tuned in to the debate. Such audiences are normally only achieved by entertainment shows, game shows and Romanian football matches.
This, the only televised confrontation between Nastase and Basescu, dealt with topics such as domestic and foreign policy, the economy, institutions of the state and the church. The issues of pensions, corruption, formation of the parliamentary majority and the alleged election fraud on November 28 were used by the candidates in reciprocal attacks.
The most disputed issue was the formation of the parliamentary majority. Both candidates have done their calculations for the new government and are relying on the same allies: PUR (Romanian Humanist Party), UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) and national minority deputies.
Adrian Nastase claimed to have already negotiated with other political parties and to have secured their agreement for the formation of a parliamentary majority. Nastase said the President would have to appoint a Prime Minister from the ranks of the PSD-PUR Union. Traian Basescu replied by saying that if he is elected, PUR, UDMR and the national minorities deputies would rally to the side of the PNL-PD Alliance, arguing that the Constitution would allow the head of state to nominate an Alliance Premier if no political party gains a majority.
mirela.luca@zf.ro
