Elections in Romania

2004 Elections

Ballots are cast separately for the President, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Romanian electoral law requires a political party to receive 5% of the valid cast ballots in order to gain seats in the Parliament. For political alliances the percentage depends on the number of parties in the alliance. In 2004 there were three alliances, all of them composed of two parties: the "Uniunea Nationala PSD+PUR" (PSD and PUR), the "Alianta Dreptate si Adevar PNL-PD" (PNL and PD), and the "Alianta Popular Crestin Democrata". The percentage required for two parties alliances is 9%. For the presidential election, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the cast ballots, a run-off between the first two candidates is organized two weeks after the election date.

President

There were 12 candidates running for president. The results are

Adrian Nastase	40.94%
Traian Basescu	33.92%
Corneliu Vadim Tudor	12.57%
Marko Bela	5.10%

The other contenders (Gheorghe Coriolan Ciuhandru, George Becali, Petre Roman, Gheorghe Dinu, Marian Petre Milut, Ovidiu Tudorici, Aurel Radulescu and Alexandru Raj Tunaru) received less than 2% each. A run-off will take place on December 12th, 2004, between Adrian Nastase and Traian Basescu.

Senate

22 political parties, three alliances, and a number of independent candidates. Of these, only four formations managed the reqired percentage:

	percent	seats
Uniunea Nationala PSD+PUR	37.13%
Alianta Dreptate si Adevar PNL-PD	31.77%
Partidul Romania Mare	13.63%
Uniunea Democrata Maghiara din Romania	6.23%

The others managed between 2.36% and 0.01%.

Chamber of Deputies

52 political parties, political alliances, and ethnic groups, plus a number of independent candidates competed for 314 seats. Only four formations managed the required percentage:

• Uniunea Nationala PSD+PUR 36.61%
• Alianta Dreptate si Adevar PNL-PD 31.33%
• Partidul Romania Mare 12.92%
• Uniunea Democrata Maghiara din Romania 6.17%

The others managed between 2.23% and 0.01%.