Not only did Klaus Iohannis manage to snatch victory from the claws of the Red Menace, but he did so by a huge, devastating margin AND on the surge in voter participation not only in the diaspora, but also in our birthplace. It’s a November Christmas miracle! 

The hero of these elections is undoubtedly the Romanian diaspora, who, by being the lightning rod for the governing elite’s contempt thus served as a catalyst for change and voter turnout. [Left-behind] Romanians are finally fed up!

In diaspora, about 90% of votes went to Iohannis. Still, Iohannis was elected by a majority of Romanians in geographical Romania as well, with the more developed areas voting for him, while the economic laggards stayed within the safety of crypto-communism.

378.811 români din diaspora au votat la al doilea tur al alegerilor prezidenţiale, faţă de peste 160.000 la scrutinul din 2 noiembrie, cei mai mulţi votanţi fiind în Italia, Spania, Republica Moldova, Marea Britanie, SUA, Germania şi Franţa, a anunţat, luni, Biroul Electoral Central.

For Toronto, it went like this:

Total: 2753 (2 invalid)
Iohannis: 2568
Ponta: 183

You might ask me if there isn’t some sort of disconnect between what I said in my previous article and what I did or what I’m happy for. That question would suggest that you’ve only read the title of my article, without really reading or understanding its content, and that’s alright.

Though I am happy with this result (and most of all with the smart turnout, with observers posted in country-side voting stations), I do not share the blind optimism some of my friends seem to have that Iohannis will be the Messiah to make it all better. I continue to have certain reservations about him, and hopefully I’ll get to those (i.e., write about them) soon. This never-ending cycle of enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations followed by the unavoidable disappointment is reminiscent of abusive relationships, with physical violence followed by gifts and trips abroad and the “he hits me, but I still love him; he hits me because he loves me” declarations to Police and case workers. PSD will continue to be the majority in Parliament and Victor Ponta will stay on as prime minister (unless another miracle happens).

Yes, I always try to vote and took two videos here in Toronto, the earlier one around noon, showing a long line-up, the second one, closer to the evening, showing a still long line-up despite all the snowing and cold. But I don’t think I could go through travelling a few hours to Stuttgart, wait almost 11 hours in a line-up and not get to vote, which is what happened to a friend of mine and many others in the diaspora (only 4.5h wait in Toronto, btw):

All this crap is certainly disconcerting, yet in some of his first declarations after winning, Klaus Iohannis seems to make his lack of experience obvious. First, the one I agree with (agp-kj):

Sunt foarte bucuros că am reușit să îmi fac programul, încât să vin astăzi, acasă și să întâlnesc acum, în Primărie, colegele și colegii mei. E un rezultat foarte, foarte frumos. Iar dacă vorbim de rezultatul alegerilor, cea mai plăcută surpriză și total neașteptată, pentru toți analiștii, a fost prezența extraordinar de mare a românilor și din țară și din diasporă la acest vot. Și astfel, rezultatul acestui scrutin are o legitimitate deosebită.

In translation, he’s happy to keep going as a Mayor [for now – amazing “modesty” an “focus on his job”] but that the result of the election is a wonderful surprise and the high turnout gives it a remarkable legitimacy. Far more controversial, from my perspective, is his appeal to the current president, Basescu, to recall the ambassadors in the countries where elections were most poorly organized (agp-it, agp-uk). As these ambassadors declared, they were only following the government’s orders. The fault for this votpocalypse rests squarely on the shoulders of Victor Ponta and his camarilla in the executive.

There are those who demand that “vote by mail” or “electronic voting” is set up. The problem I have with it is that fraud can be more easily perpetrated in those situations and the great surge of observers (see the links in sources) would be ineffectual in uncovering it.

Above, two tweets from e_raluca of “La Coltul Strazii”, who acted as an observer in Olt county and who tells us of electoral bribes of “burning wood” (for heating), which we should not forget about. In Teleorman were apparently over 700 observers, prompting PSD to claim that the opposition is trying to influence elections this way (adv-obsinfl).

complain

I'm going to leave you with some clickable eyecandy, followed by forms to file criminal complaints for voter suppression.

For those who would like to file a criminal complaint for the very poor organization of voting, try the online form at hear-ro.eu, download the Expert Forum docx (view) or the Google Doc I created, then send it to (g-plangere):

Parchetul de pe lângă Judecătoria Sector 2
str. Scaune nr. 1-3
sectorul 3
Bucureşti
România

fax: +40213149200
email: sesizare@mpublic.ro

Since Internet dogs are barking below, I’m closing with more videos on diaspora voting from Hotnews. You might want to continue with the next episode, dedicated to Iohannis shortcomings.

LE: In keeping with the title, Kathryn Schulz has a pretty good TED presentation on being wrong.

Sources / More info: diaspora-vote-photos, agp-ext, agp-kj, hn-resfin, hn-crc, crc-obs, rc-bec, r22-10ong, fb-bb, rbt-obs1, rbt-obs2, perj-cum, 2012-pdf, 201404-mae, agp-it, agp-uk, lcs-mortii, ps-nereguli, g-plangere, adv-obsinfl, adv-alex, ft-byrne, wsj-changes, bbc-defeat, mandruta-paris, rlt-extplls