Diaspora Romanians queuing for voting prompt homestretch electoral clashes

Incumbent President Basescu asks for resignations.

Sunday’s presidential elections were surely caught the interest of the Romanians living in diaspora. From morning till evening Romanians living abroad have been queuing for hours in front of the Romania’s embassies and consulates, waiting to cast their vote. Among the longest queues, there have been the ones in London, Paris, Munich, Stuttgart, Brussels, Rome, Turin, The Hague Bern, Valencia or Kishinev.

Some tens of voters have broken in the Romanian Embassy in Paris before closing the ballot boxes so that they can cast their vote. According to the law, the vote is allowed for the persons who are inside the polling station at 9 p.m., France time. 1,000 Romanians said they could not cast their vote in London, protesting in front of the embassy. Protests have been staged in Romania, too, about 200 persons, mostly youngsters, booing in front of the Foreign Ministry for Foreign Affairs against the voting process.

Previously, concerns have been voiced in London regarding the ballot papers running out, while Romanian voters in Paris have protested against the fact they cannot fill in the statutory declarations outside the polling station.Therefore Romanian associations based in those countries have asked for the voting to be extended. The Central Electoral Bureau promptly answered, denying the request.

 President Traian Basescu issued a press release saying that serious organization deficiencies have been registered at the polling stations abroad. The incumbent head of state blamed the small number of polling stations and poor infrastructure-defective staff and deficient ballot papers. “All these prevented Romanian citizens from casting their vote, from carrying out their constitutional right. Therefore Foreign Minister Titus Corl??ean and the Minister Delegate for Romanians Abroad, Bogdan Stanoevici must resign”, Basescu told the press release.

The independent contender Monica Macovei and PDL’s Catalin Predoiu had filed the same request, but asking for the entire Government’s resignation. As for the liberal candidate Klaus Iohannis, he thanked on Facebook all those who cast their vote “in spite of the defective organization of the voting process”.

PSD blamed on the Romanian ambassadors for the long queues in front of the embassies. PSD spokesperson, Gabriela Firea said the Romanian ambassadors in Berlin, Paris, Kishinev and the embassies’ staff were blocking the voting process on purpose. She asked these ambassadors to forget Traian Basescu had appointed them and to do their jobs by allowing Romanians cast their votes.

120,941 Romanians had cast their votes at the polling stations abroad until 7 p.m., following date received from all 294 polling stations there. The most voted in Italy- 28,484, Spain- 24,534, Republic of Moldova- 19,125, UK-6,235, France-5,807, Germany- approximately 5,000 and Belgium- 4,699.