The chairman of the Commission for European Affairs in Bundestag writes to Juncker: the sections outside Romania received indications from Bucharest to hinder the vote

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 Share

The voting polls abroad received indications to hinder the vote in favour of the candidates of the right, considers Gunther Krichbaum in a letter to Jean-Claude Juncker to whom he required to intervene to the Romanian government as that the second round of the elections take place in good conditions.

‘Unfortunately, the way the elections took place in the Romanian missions abroad where voting polls were organised confirms my worries. By comparison to the latest presidential elections of 2009, the number of voting polls was reduced drastically. At the same time, the available capacities in the voting polls were not adapted to the existing situation’ Gunther Krichbaum, the chairman of the Commission for European Affairs in Bundestag says in a letter sent on Monday to the chairman of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, Mediafax informs.

The German politician considers that in some polling stations abroad ‘ there were not stamps enough’. ‘ As a consequence, thousands of Romanians with a voting right had to wait hours on end in front of the voting polls, out of whom many could not vote before the closing time of 21:00, local time. Seeing how long they should wait, many gave up queuing to express their vote’ Krichbaum adding that he saw personally all these issues in a polling station in Stuttgart.

Gunther Krichbaum also notes that any observer of the political situation in Romania can see that it was not about ‘ possible difficulties in the organisation of elections, but a wilful hinderance of the free expression of the votes as in the previous elections the fact that the Romanians living abroad have the tendency to vote with the parties and candidates of the centre-right’.

The voting polls under the supervision of the social-democrat government in Romania received clear indications from Bucharest to hinder the votes expressed massively in favour of the candidates of the centre-right. This is absolutely unacceptable for a member state of the EU and has to be condemned by the commission’ he says.

The chairman of the Commission of the European Affairs in Bundestag appreciates that if the situation on Sunday happened again, this would be ‘ a clear breach of the fundamental values of the EU and the winner of such elections would not benefit from democratic legitimacy’ Krichbaum (CDU) asks the chairman EC ‘ to intervene to the Romanian government so that all Romanian citizens living abroad can exercise their right’.