If the actual pace of degradation of representative democracy in Romania continues, it’s possible that no Romanian will vote in the elections to come

Bucharest, June 4, 2009 ■ The Institute for Public Policy is worried about Romanian parties’ lack of capacity and interest to mobilize citizens to vote in the European elections of June, 7. Although this scrutiny should have been the maturity test for the Romanian political class, the estimated turnout of less than 20% is the proof that our parties are on the verge of failing this test.

Since the first free elections of 2009, Romanians’ interest and trust in the power of changing through voting has constantly degraded: if back in the ‘90s, voters’ turnout was of 86%, in 1992 and 1996 it dropped to 76%, then to 65% in 2000, 58% in 2004, 29% in the first European elections of 2007 and finally in 2008 a little over one third of Romanians still voted for the Parliament. If the voters’ turnout continues to drop down with the same pace, we are wondering what is going to happen in the next elections: will all Romanians quit their right to vote as a protest against the actual political class?

In IPP’s opinion, these figures show a sever deficit of democracy, both on the side of candidates and parties supporting them – defined as an incapacity to persuade the electorate to vote, as well as on the side of citizens, whom have renounced to get involved into public affairs, although they do invariably support them by paying taxes.

The Institute for Public Policy (IPP) accuses the partially premeditated failure of political parties to promote a competitive electoral campaign, with messages informing the electorate over the importance of voting for the European Parliament. IPP has repeatedly proposed to the Government several measures for increasing turnout (e.g. expanding of the voting period to 2 days, allocating the public subsidies for the parties according to the number of votes of each party, including the option no candidate on the voting bulletins etc.), yet no party was capable of responsibly assuming any of this measures.

At the same time, IPP appreciates that sanctioning parties by not voting on the elections of Sunday not only that will not have any impact of the disrespectful behavior of the current political class, but it has a major risk potential as far as the legitimacy of the so called representative democracy in Romania. With a very low turnout, results of the vote become unpredictable, as they do not reflect opinion polls that measure voters’ intentions on the whole population entitled to vote.

The vote of Sunday means Romania’s image in Europe for the next 5 years. Both parties and the electorate still have 3 more days to think who is really capable of representing us in Europe.

For further information, please contact Adrian Moraru, Deputy Director at phone: +40 21 212 3126/27, mobile 0724237229 or e-mail: adrian@ipp.ro.