Democracy, my country's future and its plea for help
This shall be a very long post. Please, dear followers, read it all.
Today, Romania is voting for a new president. It's the second tour. In the first election tour, there were 14 candidates. Two of them now remain: Klaus Iohannis, a German Romanian (part of the small German population from Transylvania, mayor of Sibiu; right wing) and Victor Ponta, the current prime minister (left wing).
Some words about Ponta. Ponta is now 42 and is known to have plagiarized his PhD. Upon this becoming public, he appointed a new committee that stated he is innocent and used quotation marks (thus, not stealing). Ponta is pretty much friends with all the major TV stations (Antena 3, Realitatea TV etc.) and they have been making a campaign for him even before the real campaign started, always changing the truth and omitting the parts unfavorable to their agenda.
All of Ponta's campaign has been full of ill intent and lies. He sent small folders via the national post system to all pensioners, stating that Iohannis shall cut down on their pension (untrue). He has donated massive amounts of money from the government budget to the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR). In turn, the church sent small papers to all of its believers stating they should vote the one true Romanian Orthodox candidate (thus opposing on Klaus Iohannis' German origin and Protestant religion) and advised all priests to do so. Ponta has insisted he is the only one who cut down taxes, but ever since he's been prime-minister (2012), about 36 new taxes have been introduced.
When Ponta launched his campaign, he brought tens of thousands of people from the countryside to Bucherest, people that were sent there by the left wing mayor or priest, and payed them from the government's money for their presence. This in turn led him to a display worthy of a certain Korean Communist leader. In fact, the electoral giveaways extended way beyond that; it is well known that a lot of poor people from rural areas sold their vote for a bag of flour, oil, sugar or detergent. It's no wonder that most of Ponta's voters have no superior studies, nor have they graduated from high school, nor are they from the urban areas (that are not sunk in poverty and have access to internet, thus access to info beyond what TV tells them.)
Most of the major TV stations failed to show the thousand people queues formed by the people who wanted to vote outside the country in the first election tour. The current foreign elections have been organized by Ponta and his government. It is well known that about 80% of the voters outside the country voted with someone else besides Ponta in the first tour. He knows people outside almost never vote with the left wing, because they have seen how other countries rule themselves and they realize the left wing is pulling them further and further away from the West, from EU, from USA and trying to bring them closer to countries such as Russia and China. Thousands of people in Paris, London, Munchen, Bruxelles etc. failed to vote in the first tour, despite the fact that they had been queuing for more than 6 hours. When Ponta was interviewed upon the matter, he stated that those people had been brought there from the opposition by bus only to disrupt the elections. He then stated there would be more voting sections for the second tour. A week later, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was sacked. A new one was put in his place. Yesterday evening, he announced there would be NO new voting sections.
Fearing there would be student protests taking part in major cities, Ponta issued a new urgent law stating students are free on Friday and Monday, so they'd "have time to go to their native towns and vote there". In reality, no such law was needed, as students were allowed to vote in major cities as well. A similar thing happened before the revolution in 1989, when Ceausescu issued a mini holiday for students in Cluj and Timisoara who kept protesting under the communist regime.
There have been protests taking place in the country since two weeks ago. Thousands of people have lined up, shouting: "Let diaspora vote! Let us vote! Voting is a fundamental right! Down with communism! People died in the revolution from '89 so that we could vote!". TV stations barely reported them. Yesterday, a video with the 15 000 protesters from Cluj emerged on the internet. They were reported as 1500 on TV.
Today, there were about 3000 people lined up at the Romanian Embassy in London and 2000 in Paris since before opening the voting sections. Some of them will not get the chance to vote. The government is trying to stop them at all costs.
My own brother tried voting in Bruxelles. There are 4 voting sections there. He tried two, but there were thousands of people ahead of him. In the first tour, he had to wait about 3 hours and only about 200 people voted ahead of him. He had no chance to vote today, so he gave up. Thousands of other people shall have to give up. They are being denied their constitutional right.
In the latest survery, the two candidates came up as 50% chance each of becoming president. The truth may change if the people are not allowed to vote. Every little vote counts right now. Every little vote shall make a difference. PSD, the left wing party, has been known to pay people to vote for them, to use dead people's names when voting, to vote using the names of whomever does not turn up to vote. They are doing all this to make sure they get over 50%. They are doing all this to take total control.
So I ask you, followers of other countries. Please, please spread the word. Please let other countries know what is taking place here, in Romania. Please let them know that the corrupt government and the corrupt left wing party are trying to take control of the country and install a permanent dictatorship. Please let them know people are being denied their fundamental rights.
