Elections and anti-corruption

2016 is an election year for Romania, with its citizens being expected to decide on who will represent them at local level, and also in parliament. This years elections, however, will unfold against the background of an increasing number of corruption ca

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Corina Cristea, 11.04.2016, 13:44

In Romania, candidacies can currently be submitted for the local elections due on June 5, with the application deadline being set for April 26. A number of 126 parties, alliances and unions have already registered their names and logos with the Central Electoral Bureau. Among them are established parties, such as the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) and the People’s Movement Party (PMP), as well as new parties, such as Green Sebes, the Iasi Society Party and the Community Party in Romania.

According to the most recent poll conducted by INSCOP, over 90% of respondents said they would no longer vote for mayor a candidate who is prosecuted or charged with corruption, while 88.4% of respondents said that public persons who receive a final sentence for corruption should not be allowed to run for public office again. On the other hand, only 8% of the people interviewed believe that people who receive a final sentence for corruption should be allowed to run for a public office after having served their sentence.

According to the head of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi, MPs and mayors who receive a final sentence for corruption should lose their mandates and also the right to further run in elections.

Kovesi has recently said in a TV show that, in her opinion, a public debate is needed to prompt the revision of the current legislation: “I have seen, on many occasions, people with important public positions who received final sentences and who nevertheless kept their public position. There have been MPs, for instance, who received a definitive sentence for corruption deeds and they still continued to be MPs. They did not lose their position, and they continued to go to work, to Parliament, pass laws and get paid for it. So, perhaps we should consider, at the level of society, if we can solve this problem by using legislative tools, especially when we have to do with definitive sentences.”

According to another poll, conducted in the capital city Bucharest by Sociopol, district mayors involved in criminal cases continue to enjoy the trust of over 40% of the citizens. Given this situation, Laura Codruta Kovesi has also said that potential candidates, involved in criminal cases, should question the morality of their actions, in spite of the fact that they would still be supported by a part of the voters.

This entire debate is taking place in a context in which some mayors, who were prosecuted for corruption or subject to legal restrictions pending trial, have expressed their intention to run for another mandate.