The latest developments with the request of Traian Basescu, on behalf of the opposition alliance make me think of Romania blaming Urs Maier, after we didn’t quallified for the Euro 2004. It’s not that we remained to depend on the last game of all, that we failed to score at least three times in excellent situations during that last game, or that we couldn’t just throw the ball away in those last minutes. It was Urs Maier fault ’cause he gave another extra minute after the announced ones and Denmark for using it, scoring and going to Portugal.

I totally admit that there was a fraud, big and considerable this time, but I really don’t think that “Ukraine solution” would do any good, or will help in any way. I really don’t think that this is the best available strategy for starting the run-off campaign.

I consider, on the other side, that the things should be said loud and clear, that they should go for it and try to identify and make it public for everybody what really happened and push really hard on Justice to play his role. After we proove that the fraud is big enough to change the elections than we might go out in the streets.

That, even if I really think we, as a nation, passed the state of mind that Ukraine is passing through at the moment, and that happened few years ago (and I don’t want to say we are more democratic or free) and I cannot really imagine people in Romania, going out in the streets and staying there for weeks just because there has been a fraud in the elections. I see us more in the state of mind of the americans, after the Florida-gate in 2000, and it’s true, that’s not something to be necessarily proud of.

UPDATE: The Central electoral Bureau (BEC) declined few minutes ago the opposition requests, without really explaining the difference in the numbers reported by them yesterday. I can say now, a thing that I was afraid before, that the reply was totally disgusting.

UPDATE 7: Newest results available for the morning of November, 30th, after counting 87.86% of the votes:

President:

Adrian Nastase: 40,71%

Traian Basescu: 33,55%

Senate:

PSD+PUR: 36,88%

D.A. (PNL+PD): 31,41%

PRM: 13,65%

UDMR: 6,87%

Parliament:

PSD+PUR: 36,37%

D.A. (PNL+PD): 31,00%

PRM: 12,94%

UDMR: 6,79%

The very small change from the last anouncement, as well as the very small number of votes remained to be counted, give me reasons that these will be the closest figures to the final results, decimal points variations that might come from now on beeing useless.

UPDATE 6: Presidential elections map

UPDATE 5: Read through what international mass media is saying about these elections

UPDATE 4: Capitulation banned!:

Before those who cannot lead a better life unless others lead a poorer one,

Before those who hold elections as a thief would hold a bundle of fake keys,

Before those who steal from the polls, as they have been stealing from the budget, salaries and taxes for a long time,

Before those who came up from the woods and invaded the locals,

Before those who rely upon the backwardness, ignorance and weakness of the forgotten counties of Romania,

Before them, Romania prepares its capitulation.
UPDATE 3: Want to find out more about who’s who, check this Elections, briefly for a short and objective analysis of the parties involved

UPDATE 2 (14:00): After half of the votes are counted the difference remained very small:

President:

Adrian Nastase: 38,90%

Traian Basescu: 34,82%

Senate:

PSD+PUR: 35,17%

D.A. (PNL+PD): 32,59%

Parliament:

PSD+PUR: 34,12%

D.A. (PNL+PD): 32,90%

UPDATE: Considering the tight difference Fraud worries in Romanian poll will be matter to study and debate.

There are also the few hundred of thousand votes that will come, later I suppose, from the romanians abroad.

First preliminary results, released few minutes ago (after counting 35.65% of the votes), reveal an incredible tight run, for parliament, with a difference of a little more than 1% between the two major political alliances, in favor of the Social Democrat Party (34,44 % vs. 33,21%).

In the run for presidency the difference is a little more than 3% in favour of Adrian Nastase (38,7% for Adrian Nastase vs. 35,46% fdr the opposition leadear Traian Basescu).

Next official preliminary results will come at 14.00 Bucharest time.

After breaking all diplomatic rules with regard to a sovereign and independent country, anticipating the results of the general elections in Romania and already mentioning Mircea Geoana as “prime minister” and Mr. Nastase – the clairvoyant commissioner Verheugen said that he was clearly convinced that the ending of the negotiations with Romania until the end of this month was not only necessary, but also possible.

This is at least weird, considering the latest critics that came from EU regarding Romania’s reforms.

Meanwhile, an Economist article, The next EU enlargement looms, mention that:

a change of government might be healthy. The ruling Social Democrats (PDSR) are post-communists whose older leaders learnt their trade in Ceausescu’s time. They have modernised their style and ideas in the past four years, but their party machine is fuelled by clientelism and corruption

There is still a long way to go. Romania has the lowest income per person in central Europe, the worst environmental standards, the biggest tax arrears, the most pervasive corruption, the highest infant mortality and the lowest education spending. Its judicial system is a mess (see article), its media freedom questionable, and its labour market so dysfunctional as to constitute ‘a human-asset paralysis’, in the words of a World Bank report.

Yet another Economist article about possible impediments for 2007 EU accession: the judicial system.

Its courts are short of judges, its judges short of training. Some laws are out of date, others are new and untested. Lack of judicial independence is made worse by a political system riddled with cronyism and corruption.

Read the full article: One key obstacle to Romania’s EU entry (subscription required) or here

Reporters sans Frontieres just published the Third Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index.

The report basically shows, what it’s been discussing in Romania lately, that we’re on the completely wrong track in this matter. As such, Romania is falling to the 70th place in the top, after position 59 in 2003 Report and 45 in 2002 Report.

No comment.

Despite the favorable EU report on Romania economy I still think that 2007 it’s quite an early date for country’s accession among the EU states. Corruption, struggling economy or political pressures on the media might be just some of the arguments. It definitely seems that I’m not the only one thinking this way.

But it seems that for “flailing western economies, expansion would be a dream come true – a vast pool of cheap labour, a huge market for exports, and vast swathes of arable land at knock-down prices”, Tom Wilson says in Why 2007 is too soon article in Ziarul Financiar.
Also, an older article on this the Economist talks about the same things in Don’t count your chickens.
I have to mention here, that even though both articles were written before the EU gave the green light for 2007 accession, nothing changed about the things and problems written there.

The United States has become, in effect, two nations — divided by history, ethnicity, culture, religion, economics and, especially now, its politics, a new book argues.
Retro vs. Metro, a free book written by the self-made billionaire John Sperling, that presents a new thesis about divisions in America that are growing more alarming each day.

Romania is about to be recognized as having a functional market economy in a country report of the European Commission due to be presented on Wednesday, according to Financial Times.
That is announced by BBC as well, with the mention that the Commission is keeping a ″safeguard clause″ at hand to postpone the accession of Romania and Bulgaria from 2007 to 2008.

UPDATE: You can now download the full Country Report (630k, PDF)