VZCZCXRO1759
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBM #0581/01 1411513
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211513Z MAY 07 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6671
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000581 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NCE 
 
E.O.  12958, AS AMENDED: N/A 
 
TAGS: PGOV PREL SOCI RO
 
SUBJECT: SUSPENDED PRESIDENT TRAIAN BASESCU WINS REFERENDUM VOTE 
 
REFTELS: A) Bucharest 540 B) Bucharest 531 C) Bucharest 457 D) 
 
Bucharest 454 E) Bucharest 453 
 
¶1.   (SBU) Romanians voted overwhelmingly against the removal of 
President Traian Basescu from office on May 19.  The President will 
likely return to his presidential duties on May 22, once the 
Constitutional Court validates the referendum and publishes it in 
the official record.  The Central Electoral Office released on May 
21 close-to-final (99.6 percent of precincts reporting) preliminary 
data showing that 74 percent of voters said "no" to the president's 
dismissal, while only 25 percent voted for the impeachment.  With a 
turnout rate of 44 percent (more than 8 million people voted out of 
18 million registered voters), Basescu received the endorsement of 
almost a million more voters than he received in the 2004 
presidential election. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) After the polls closed (and after two exit polls predicted 
he would receive around 75 percent of the vote), President Basescu 
joined a public rally of about 1,000 supporters in University 
Square.  Basescu said the overwhelming vote for him was evidence 
that Romanians endorsed his political projects, including continuing 
justice reforms, enacting a lustration law, revising the 
Constitutional division of powers, introducing the uninominal vote, 
and decentralizing the Romanian healthcare and education systems. 
He claimed the vote was "proof Romanians will modernize the 
political class." He suggested he would return to the square every 
three months in order to give a "direct report" to the Romanian 
people on his activity.  Basescu said the large number of votes he 
received also demonstrated how far the parliament (two-thirds of 
which had voted to suspend him) was divorced from the public's 
interest.  However, he closed by extending an offer to cooperate in 
the future with the parliament and political parties. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Exit surveys showed Basescu received substantial support 
from voters who said they were affiliated with parties that had 
sought the President's impeachment. Some 58 percent of Liberal and 
UDMR voters cast their ballots in favor of Basescu, along with 45 
percent of Vadim Tudor's Romania Mare voters, and even a quarter of 
Social Democratic voters.  It is also worth noting that exit polling 
showed Basescu garnering two-thirds of the votes from followers of 
Gigi Becali's New Generation Party (PNG), in addition to the 
expected overwhelming support from the Democratic and Liberal 
Democratic parties, which backed Basescu.  Basescu's overwhelming 
popular support was also reflected throughout the regions.  Basescu 
received 85 percent of the vote in Sibiu county; over 80 percent in 
Brasov, Arad, Bistrita-Nasaud, Covasna, and Bihor counties; some 75 
percent in Bucharest; and between 60-80 percent in other counties, 
including the Social Democratic stronghold of Iasi and the UDMR 
Hungarian dominated Mures and Harghita counties. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) All party leaders of the anti-Basescu coalition have, in 
various ways, conceded defeat after the announcement of the results 
of the exit polls.  Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Mircea 
Geoana - responsible for initiating the campaign to suspend Basescu 
from office - insisted that parliament's decision to suspend Basescu 
was nevertheless a legitimate one, even without the endorsement of 
the people in the referendum.  He characterized the referendum 
result as a "victory without glory" and evinced his hope that 
Basescu learned his lesson from the suspension.  He announced late 
on May 21 that the PNL government was fragile and under "imminent" 
danger of being dismissed, and said PSD would start negotiations 
with the other parties to create a "transparent" parliamentary 
majority to govern for the remainder of the mandate. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu (PNL leader) 
remarked that Romanians gave President Basescu "a second chance...to 
act responsibly." He noted however that Basescu's priorities were 
not those of Romanians, but pledged to cooperate with the President, 
"for Romania's benefit."  Despite PNL Bucharest leader Ludovic 
Orban's call for the Liberals to move to the opposition, Tariceanu 
refused to resign on May 21 and PNL leadership voted 31-2 in favor 
of remaining in government and trying to cooperate with the 
President.  The head of the Conservative Party (PC), Dan Voiculescu, 
pointed to the low turnout in the referendum and said that Basescu 
should not claim in the future that he represents the people, as he 
was entitled to speak only on behalf of 30 percent of registered 
voters.  Voiculescu also warned the president that he would continue 
to monitor Basescu's future actions closely, but expressed hopes 
that Basescu would transform himself and "start to build for Romania 
and for Romana|Q  The return is official once the Constitutional 
Court's decision is published in the Official Gazette.  The 
Constitutional Court will send its report to the Parliament, which 
 
BUCHAREST 00000581  002 OF 002 
 
 
will convene in a joint session to take note of President's return 
to office. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: The referendum results were in some ways 
anticlimactic, as they tracked closely with pre-vote polling data 
and with the exit polls that we saw on the date of the referendum. 
While NGO poll-watchers reported poor organization in some voting 
precincts (note: Pro Democracy Association told us that their 
referendum observers received over 2000 calls reporting 
irregularities and complaining about the voting process) they agreed 
that there were no/no serious issues that might call into question 
the legitimacy and accuracy of the referendum vote.  End Comment. 
 
TAUBMAN