The Romanian legislative election of 2004 was held on November 28, 2004. 137 seats in the Senate of Romania and 314 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were up for election. November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Senate of Romania (Romanian:Senat) is the upper house in Romanias bicameral parliament. ... Romanias Chamber of Deputies, inside the Palace of the Parliament. ...

The 2004 legislative election was held simultaneously with the presidential election. According to the 2003 amendment to the Romanian Constitution, the presidential term is now five years instead of four, meaning that in the future, legislative and presidential elections will be held separately. A presidential election was held in Romania on November 28, 2004. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Romanian Constitution is the fundamental law that establishes the structure of the government of Romania, the rights and obligations of the countrys citizens, and its mode of passing laws. ...

Contenders

The main contenders were the left-wing alliance made up of the incumbent Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) and the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), and, on the other hand, the center-right "Justice and Truth" alliance (Dreptate şi adevăr) comprising the liberal National Liberal Party (Romania) and the reformist Democratic Party (Romania). In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms that refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially but not exclusively in the American sense of the word... The Social Democratic Party of Romania (Partidul Social Democrat or PSD) is the governing party of Romania. ... The Romanian Humanist Party (Romanian: Partidul Umanist Român, PUR) is a Romanian centrist political party. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the Right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... Justice and Truth (in Romanian Dreptate şi adevăr, or D.A. for short) is a political alliance comprising two centre-right political parties in Romania: the liberal National Liberal Party (PNL) and the reformist Democratic Party (PD). ... Note: This entry discusses liberalism as a world wide ideology, not its manifestations in any specific country. ... The Partidul Naţional Liberal (National Liberal Party) is a liberal party in Romania. ... The Democratic Party ( Romanian: Partidul Democrat, PD) is a social-democrat party of Romania. ...

Other significant contenders were the Greater Romania Party (PRM) (right-wing nationalists), the ethnic Hungarian party Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), and the Union for Romanian Reconstruction, a group of right-wing technocrats. Great Romania Party campaign poster for the Romanian presidential election, 2004. ... Árpád Feszty and assistants vast (over 8000 m2) canvas, painted to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the Magyar conquest of Hungary, now displayed at Ópusztaszer National Memorial Site in Hungary Magyars are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. ... The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (Romanian: Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România, UDMR; Hungarian: Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség, RMDSZ) is an ethnically based political party representing ethnic Hungarians in Romania. ... The Union for Romanian Reconstruction (Uniunea pentru Reconstrucţia României, URR) is a political party in Romania without parliamentary representation. ...

Results for Senate

137 seats, 69 seats needed for majority.

Other parties and independent candidates won less than 1%. The Social Democratic Party of Romania (Partidul Social Democrat or PSD) is the governing party of Romania. ... The Romanian Humanist Party (Romanian: Partidul Umanist Român, PUR) is a Romanian centrist political party. ... The Partidul Naţional Liberal (National Liberal Party) is a liberal party in Romania. ... The Democratic Party ( Romanian: Partidul Democrat, PD) is a social-democrat party of Romania. ... Great Romania Party campaign poster for the Romanian presidential election, 2004. ... The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (Romanian: Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România, UDMR; Hungarian: Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség, RMDSZ) is an ethnically based political party representing ethnic Hungarians in Romania. ... The New Generation Party (Partidul Noua GeneraÅ£ie) is a political party in Romania. ... The Christian-Democratic Peoples Party (Partidul Popular Creştin-Democrat, PPCD) is a Romanian christian-democratic party. ...

Results for Chamber of Deputies

332 seats (314 elected), 167 seats needed for majority.

Other parties and independent candidates won less than 1%. The Social Democratic Party of Romania (Partidul Social Democrat or PSD) is the governing party of Romania. ... The Romanian Humanist Party (Romanian: Partidul Umanist Român, PUR) is a Romanian centrist political party. ... The Partidul Naţional Liberal (National Liberal Party) is a liberal party in Romania. ... The Democratic Party ( Romanian: Partidul Democrat, PD) is a social-democrat party of Romania. ... Great Romania Party campaign poster for the Romanian presidential election, 2004. ... The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (Romanian: Uniunea Democrată Maghiară din România, UDMR; Hungarian: Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség, RMDSZ) is an ethnically based political party representing ethnic Hungarians in Romania. ... The New Generation Party (Partidul Noua GeneraÅ£ie) is a political party in Romania. ... The Christian-Democratic Peoples Party (Partidul Popular Creştin-Democrat, PPCD) is a Romanian christian-democratic party. ...

Apart from the deputy seats up for grabs in the election, each ethnic minority group that has not gained representation in Parliament will be given one deputy seat - 18 seats in total.

Controversies

The opposition has alleged fraudulent use by the PSD of "supplementary lists", designed to help Romanians in transit to vote. Traditionally, Romanians voted with a cardboard identity card, which was stamped when they voted. Most Romanians now have laminated plastic IDs, to which a printed stamp is affixed when a person votes. However, the stamps can be easily removed.

The opposition claimed that there were organized "electoral excursions" of PSD supporters who were bussed to various towns to vote several times. This was corroborated by several teams of journalists, who followed the buses.

The Romanian opposition announced on November 30 that they demanding a re-run of the election, because some of the void votes were allegedly awarded to PSD. They shown evidence that some people voted more than once (they found about 750 persons in three counties, but their search in the supplimentary lists would continue) and also shown that many of the minutes of the electoral committees were wrongly completed (the sum of the number of valid votes and null votes did not match the number of votants, sometimes by a difference of hundreds or thousands of votes) and the central software not only allowed these contradictory figures, but it also added these differences by default to the PSD. The opposition announced it started a parallel counting, which shows a difference of only 2% between the two parties. November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 31 days remaining, as the final day of November. ...

The government attacked the opposition by arguing that 'rumours of fraud' affect Romania's economy and its external credibility.

In January 2005, the IMAS institute of statistics released an analysis of the voting results in the 16,824 precincts. In the top 1,000 precincts with the most votes on the supplementary lists, PSD had 43%, while DA had 23% while in the precincts with least votes on supplementary lists, PSD had 30%, while DA had 34%. The same trend was true in the precincts with most void votes. It has been argued that this could not be due to pure hazard, and therefore the fraud was real. [1]

Government forming

No party holds the absolute majority, although PSD+PUR with UDMR and the other minorities hold a bare majority in the Chamber of the Deputies. On 13 December, the PUR president Dan Voiculescu hinted that they have more in common with the DA (both have a center-right orientation) and that they might break from the PSD, but one day later said he will remain with PSD. It has been suggested by the press that this could be result of a blackmail about his communist past. By December 25 both UDMR and PUR signed a protocol of alliance with DA (Justice and Truth), with the designated prime minister being Calin Popescu Tariceanu December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former businessman. ... Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu The title given to this article lacks diacritics because of certain technical limitations. ...

See also

• Romanian presidential election, 2004
• List of political parties in Romania

A presidential election was held in Romania on November 28, 2004. ... Political parties in Romania lists political parties in Romania. ...

External links

• Central Electoral Bureau (in Romanian)
• BBC News - Fraud worries in Romanian poll
• OSCE election report (PDF, 350 KiB)