Local elections: Fraud allegations in two Bucharest districts, USR mayors ask for vote recount
The incumbent mayors of Bucharest's Districts 1 and 2, Clotilde Armand and Radu Mihaiu, both representing USR, have put forward fraud allegations in the context of last Sunday’s local elections and asked for recounts to take place in…
Radu Dumitrescu · Journalist
· Updated · 4 min read
The incumbent mayors of Bucharest's Districts 1 and 2, Clotilde Armand and Radu Mihaiu, both representing USR, have put forward fraud allegations in the context of last Sunday’s local elections and asked for recounts to take place in voting stations with irregularities.
Even now, the counting process is still not complete in the two districts. The two incumbent mayors, who are in danger of losing their seats, have filed complaints against the president of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), Toni Greblă, accusing him of abuse of office for the flawed conduct of the elections, as well as incitement to falsify documents.
"Toni Greblă oversaw a real electoral chaos," said Clotilde Armand, emphasizing that the members of the polling stations had to wait up to 30 hours throughout the voting and ballot delivery process. "Due to fatigue, the members and presidents of the polling stations were forced to draw up reports with gross falsifications. We reported numerous problems and irregularities, all due to fatigue,” she added, cited by G4Media.
The incumbent mayor said that the information system for centralizing votes was not working on Friday, which is why, even now, there are still polling stations that have not finalized the delivery of reports.
"Currently, there is pressure on the presidents of polling stations to close everything even if there are many irregularities and the reports do not match what was voted," said Clotilde Armand, stressing the need for recounting votes in certain polling stations.
Clotilde Armand had a slight edge over PSD-PNL candidate George Tuță in the exit polls on Sunday, June 9, but partial results gave the latter as a winner, with about 500 votes ahead. Back in 2020, the incumbent mayor also faced a contested election, with opponent and outgoing PSD mayor Daniel Tudorache alleging fraud on Armand’s side.
“These elections were deeply flawed due to the organization. My message, because I am also tired, is that I have no problem acknowledging a result, but these elections must be fair. If the elections are fraudulent, why should we even go to vote? That is why it is necessary to recount the ballots in several stations with suspect results, where gross falsifications have been reported," said Clotilde Armand.
