Suspicions of electoral fraud deepen in Romania as NGOs uncover 500,000 canceled votes

Suspicions of electoral fraud deepen after the local and European elections held in Romania on June 9, which saw the governing PSD-PNL alliance tighten its grip on city halls across the country and the far-right replace reformist opposition MEPs in the European Union’s legislative. While some incumbent mayors accuse fraud, Expert Forum revealed that a record of almost 500,000 votes were declared null, representing 5.1% of the total.

As the vote combined the elections for the European Parliament with local elections, people were given 5 ballots when they came to vote, which gave rise to confusion and complex counting procedures. In Bucharest, people had to choose between candidates for the general mayor, district mayors, members of the general council of the Municipality of Bucharest and district councils, and European Parliament.