Preparations for the EP Elections

The lists of party-affiliated and independent candidates seeking election in the European Parliament have been submitted to the Central Electoral Bureau, which is to validate the candidacies before the start of the campaign. The Bureau has already announced having accepted the lists submitted by all parliamentary parties, which are in fact expected to win most of the seats.

Bogdan Matei, 03.04.2014, 13:16

Taking part in the election are the Romanian parties affiliated to Europe’s major ideological families. The left-of-centre alliance made up of the Social Democrats, the Conservatives and the National Union for the Progress of Romania, in power, runs for the European Socialists. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, a junior member in the ruling coalition, and the Liberal Democrats in opposition, are affiliated to the European People’s Party, and the National Liberal Party to the Alliance of Liberals.

Other political parties whose lists have been validated by the Electoral Bureau, are the Christian Democratic National Peasants’ Party, the first from Romania admitted into the European People’s Party, the Party of the People, the People’s Movement and the Civic Force. The most notable independent candidate already validated is the former world gymnastics champion Corina Ungureanu.

The Bureau however rejected a number of high-profile personalities as well. One of the most popular Romanian actors, Mircea Diaconu, who has also served as a Senator and a Culture Minister, submitted his candidacy, but the National Integrity Agency sent a letter to the Central Electoral Bureau advising that the candidacy should be rejected. According to the Integrity Agency, there is a final court ruling that prevents Diaconu from running for public office until 2015, after he lost his seat in the Senate on grounds of incompatibility.

The nationalist, populist Greater Romania Party, long outside the Parliament of Romania, also offered a tragic-comical performance on this occasion. The party founder and current MEP Corneliu Vadim Tudor, and his former right-hand in the party, Gheorghe Funar, have submitted competing candidate lists for the same party, but the Central Electoral Bureau rejected both of them.

Under the law, the rejection of a list of candidates or of an independent candidacy may be challenged in court, until April the 16th. The elections for the European Parliament are scheduled for May the 25th in Romania.