Romanian opposition alliance denied registration by Electoral Bureau

Romania’s democratic opposition coalition, United Right-Wing Alliance (Alianta Dreptei Unite), formed by the reformist USR and its two partners PMP and FD, failed to be recognized and registered for the European Elections by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) on the grounds that one of the parties (PMP) has not registered its new president – who is the signatory of the collaboration contract among the three partners.

The ambiguous legal situation of PMP allowed BEC to reject the registration of the Alliance, which in turn accused political pressures.

Although formally the decision may be justified (PMP claims it is not), the absence of the sole relevant democratic opposition force combined with the dominant political construction formed by Social Democrats and Liberals may certainly lead to a deficit of democracy in a year with multiple elections.

The Alliance said it would challenge BEC’s ruling at the High Court.

Technically, the documents of the Alliance were signed by Eugen Tomac on behalf of PMP, while BEC claims that the official president is still Cristian Diaconescu. The latter, who is the former president of the party, indeed challenged the Congress that elected Tomac. But he lost in the first instance. However, the Court of Appeal re-launched the case last February, and no final ruling has been made yet.

This ambiguous situation allowed one of the BEC members, who happens to be the representative of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), to call for the invalidation of the United Right-Wing Alliance as a single political entity.

The Alliance announced that it will go forward with collecting signatures from voters in order to register their list of candidates for the European Elections.

The PMP leader, Eugen Tomac, accuses a "democratic slippage that has not existed since 1989," according to G4media.ro. The Alliance, in a joint statement, directly accused the Social Democratic Party and Liberal Party of being behind the BEC’s decision.

USR leader Cătălin Drulă spoke of the BEC’s decision as an "act of political aggression" and an act of "cowardice and contempt." He confirmed that the Alliance will appeal the decision to the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

Drulă also called the supporters of the right-wing alliance to University Square to collect signatures for the June 9 candidacies.