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| Europe |
| Romanian protesters call for fair run-off election |
| 2014-11-15 |
| [Iran Press TV] Thousands of people have taken to the streets in a number of cities across Romania to call for a fair election two days before a presidential run-off vote in the country. On Friday, the demonstrators staged anti-government rallies in the Romanian cities, including the capital Bucharest as well as Cluj, Timisoara, Sibiu and Brasov, over possible voting limitations for their compatriots living abroad in the election slated to be held this weekend. Protesters carried banners that read, "We care," or "Vote with your head, not your stomach." Many of the Romanians living abroad reportedly were unable to cast their ballots during the first round of the election on November 2 due to long queues and bureaucratic hurdles at the country's embassies across the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and some other countries. Thousands in Romania held protest rallies following the first round of the vote, forcing Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean to step down on November 10. Bucharest has tried to solve the problems in the first round by increasing the number of voting booths and staff abroad in the November 16 run-off, but it has not responded to requests to increase the number of polling stations. According to estimates, up to four million Romanians live abroad, with only a fraction of them voting in elections. According to data released after the November 2 poll, some 46 percent of the 160,056 Romanians who voted in foreign countries supported Klaus Iohannis, an ethnic German mayor backed by two center-right parties, while only 16 percent voted for Victor Ponta, the country's Social Democrats premier. |
| Posted by:Fred |