Dirty Presidential Elections under way in Romania

On November 2, 2014, over 18 million Romanians are expected to directly elect a President, who has authority over external policy, secret services and represents Romanian at EU summits. The figure itself reflects the incapacity of Romania’s successive governments to arrive to a decent count of voters, as the latest census found that the whole population has dropped to this figure. Despite attempts to provide Romanians with some voter IDs over the years the action has never been completed, so in the absence of a realistic number of voters (it is not even known how many reside in the country) and any form of registration the elections remain open to fraud. Special legislation passed by the current Victor Ponta government allows voting in any district, which has been previously associated with high frequency of fraud.