Bucharest mayor Nicuşor Dan running for new mandate, claims 30% support

Bucharest mayor Nicuşor Dan recently said that he is running to win a new mandate, claiming to have over 30% support from voters in the polls.

"I am running to win; it would be a shame if after these 3 years, because one year I paid debts, in which I steered things in the right direction, PSD [e.n the Social Democrats] would return with what it did in those 12 years," said the mayor about this year's local elections, cited by News.ro.

Uncertainty still lingers regarding the exact date of the local elections, but the mayor said that the elections will have a single round. As a result, candidates for mayor need only a relative majority to win.

"You have a large party that always had 30-35%, you have an incumbent mayor who has over 30%. And then the battle polarizes [...]. That's the beauty of two-round voting, in a single round people vote pragmatically. The reason why I don't like this merger of local and national elections is because themes will overlap, and we won't have space to present our ideas. People will not have easy access to information about the local elections," Nicuşor Dan stated.

Dan also said that there is a danger of increased voter absence and that merging elections to force higher turnout may backfire. He also argued that his mandate, now ending, has been marked by several achievements.

"I am running to win, because it would be a shame if after these three years, because one year I paid debts, in which I steered things in the right direction, the PSD would return with what it did in those 12 years," Nicuşor Dan added. "I hope people will get informed; I hope that in the eternal fight of right-wing versus PSD, many of the right-wing voters will vote for me again," the mayor affirmed.

Nicuşor Dan also stressed that he will not be joining a political party and that he will remain independent.

Before becoming mayor, he was a mathematician and local activist, and the departed founder of the reformist USR party. Both USR and PNL, center right-wing parties, supported Dan in his previous bid for mayor, but the National Liberal Party (PNL) recently renounced the mayor and said it will not be supporting him again.

(Photo source: Nicusor Dan on Facebook)