The Fake Presidents or Prezidentiabilii

Although I already said I’m not voting, due to atrocious bureaucratic hurdles at a time when it was supposed to be as easy to vote as possible in the most expensive election so far, I’m having second thoughts. Voting is an opportunity to give some unknown hopeful a chance, so I will have a quick look at the lesser known candidates who are worthy of a second look (apart from frontrunners).

square composite of Romanian president candidates mugshots after Alba24I expect Iohannis to be re-elected, irrespective of whom I’d vote for, because PNL had a surprisingly good showing in the MEP elections and is now running the government. He played a typical frontrunner campaign, avoiding debates and publicity while emphasizing his boringly beneficial record of being silent and a sex symbol for the Asperger crowd.

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There are only four candidates with a realistic chance to make it to the runoffs: Barna, Dancila, Paleologu and Diaconu (and even there, the chances for the last two are more questionable).

I wouldn’t suffer if Barnache or Paralelologu become presidents, though I’m fond of neither. I wouldn’t want Dancila to win and I’d consider it a disaster if that Romanian Joker would somehow manage to make it into the 2nd round (runoffs). I think Mircea Diaconu would make a far worse president than Barna: I see him stressed out and already cracking under pressure, unable to play a different role than the one he played throughout his career – that of a slightly neurotic average Joe who, additionally, has no qualms to use religion to achieve his ends – in an interview with Adevarul uses “in the name of God” 4-5 times.

Had I never ran for office, I’d probably vote for Iohannis and be happy with his re-election. But having had the experience of running for office, I am frustrated with incumbency rates and the incumbent advantage, so I now always [try to] vote against the incumbent. It’s more work, but so much more satisfying! Of all the main ones and before researching the others, Barna seems worth it.

Since Iohannis is likely going to get re-elected (I’d give him a 60% chance), one could safely reward with a vote a lesser known candidate. I will use the list of candidates from the Romanian Wikipedia (though there’s an article in the English one as well). You can also check out the EuropaFM 3-candidate debate, though it’s almost 3h and starts at the 30 minute mark.

I’m not going to compare the main candidates (Iohannis, Barna, Dancila, Paleologu), but I will try to look at who else deserves a shot.

One big absentee in the list of wannabe’s is Ponta, for reasons explained by Cristian Andrei at elo-ponta – good riddance!.

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Here’s the list of the “rest of the candidates”. Firstly, the ones whom BEC accused of having falsified their signatures but still got to run b/c BEC has no legal power to stop them:

  1. Viorel Cataramă  - Partidul Dreapta Liberală;
  2. Miron Cozma - candidat independent;
  3. Maria Minea - Partidul Românilor Patrioţi de Pretutindeni;
  4. Cătălin Ivan - Partidul Alternativa Pentru Demnitate Naţională;
  5. Sebastian Constantin Popescu - Partidul Noua Românie,
  6. Alexandru Cumpănaşu - candidat independent; (see link under “that Romanian Joker”)
  7. Ninel Peia - Partidul Neamul Românesc,
  8. Bobby Păunescu - candidat independent.

It is possible that BEC was wrong to accuse them of having falsified their signatures and I’m not sure whether they are at all on the voting bulletins, but I do trust BEC’s “judgement” and will not vote for any of them. I also recommend to you that you don’t vote for them. The presidency requires a certain level of fortitude and someone who starts by falsifying signatures is not worthy of that institution.

Needless to say, if one can still run for president with falsified signatures you have to be stupid not to falsify (if you cannot get signatures otherwise), especially since, on getting a minimum of 3% of the vote, you get to have your campaign subsidized by the government – which is, I suppose, why the aforementioned Joker and a few others are running. If you falsified signatures you should not be reimbursed even if you meet the minimum “popularity” requirements for subsidy. Additionally, moving forward, we should perhaps decrease the “signatures requirement” while making sure that you cannot run for president with a falsified list (perhaps add it to DNA competencies?).

To conclude, fuck these guys!

Other candidates

  1. Ramona Ioana Bruynssels – doves & Voiculescu.
  2. Bogdan Stanoevici – former minister of diaspora under Ponta and B-actor (w, f1, f2, p, elo, yt). He’s quite interesting as a person, but for me that’s insufficient.
  3. John Ion Banu – supposedly rich guy from USA (w, fb, pnro.ro, protv, d24, rfi). This guy is “fan Trump”.

Of the above, you would have to choose between Stanoevici, who lives in Romania and is the Circus director (named by Firea) and John Ion Banu, the only diasporic candidate and a virtually unknown. But I’m not a “fan Trump” so I couldn’t vote for Banu. That leaves Stanoevici as the only lesser-known candidate worth voting for. Even for him though, the major jump from a Circus to a Country is highly unlikely.

As a reminder, diaspora can still vote today until  – Sunday November 10 (7am-21:00; it started Friday @ 12pm) and 22-24 November for the runoffs.

Sources / More info: hn-hemoro, rfe-decont, adv-8tapi, a24-14catindati, adv-sondaj, d24-list, elo-ponta, mae-ghid, mae-urgent, rel-decnt

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