Till this hour (around 16:00) only 14% of Romanian have voted. I cannot say that I am surprised. Any figures above 20-25% presence (and I am optimistic) might be suspicious, from my point of view. What surprises me is that there were approx. 50-50% urban/rural voters. Usually, Romanians from rural area are more ‘disciplined’ and do vote mainly in the morning. I wonder if the politicians will get the [real] message: they are no longer credible, any of them (including all parties, Prime Minister and President). I think not.
And something tells me that the number of voters will miraculously increase in the evening, and the share of traveling voters (even though it is autumn, foggy day, cold, bad weather etc.) will be very important.

Latest figures: 19%

Today starts the first campaign for EU Parliament in Romania, but my hopes for real debates on European issues are, once again, ruined.

The elections will be on November 25th. Our President and our Prime-Minister (seems to me that the ‘great’ minds do really meet) decided to have referendum on the uninominal vote at the same date, if possible each of them with his own referendum, because the Prime-Minister announced that the Government intends to assume responsibility for the Uninominal Vote Law, yet the clown at Cotroceni published a decree for the same matter.

They both know this is a useless referendum - the citizens are asking for uninominal vote for years (although I doubt that they really understood what it means).

In consequence, the campaign for the European elections is taking place at the same time with the campaign on the uninominal vote referendum - Guess which of them will attract more political circus? The second, of course. Who cares about our future in Europe? Nor the Romanian President neither the Prime-Minister, for sure.

N.B. When Basescu decided to allow US military bases (US, not NATO, guys!) on Romanian territory, the possibility of organizing a referendum just slipped his mind. Or his mind slipped? I cannot really tell …