The two ruling parties in Romania – the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL), got over 73% of the seats in the county councils after the local elections on June 9, the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) announced on June 26. 

The two parties got over 60% of the total votes, but their share in the final number of seats is higher due to the redistribution of votes obtained by the parties that didn’t pass the 5% electoral threshold. 

Of a total of 1,338 mandates in the 41 county councils in Romania, PSD got 521 (39%) and PNL got 412 (31%). The two parties also got 42 seats (3% of the total) in county councils as an electoral alliance, News.ro reported. 

The main opposition party – the right-wing AUR – got 159 county council seats (12%), followed by the Hungarian Democratic Union UDMR with 104 seats (7.8%) and the United Right Alliance USR-PMP-FD with 78 seats. 

PSD also has 24 county council presidents after the recent elections, more than 4 years ago, while PNL has 11, and two other county council heads were elected with the support of the PSD-PNL alliance. Meanwhile, UDMR is the only other party that managed to get 4 county council president seats in counties with significant Hungarian communities.

Although PSD and PNL won the local elections, the relationship between the two parties deteriorated after the vote as they haven’t been able to agree on the date of the presidential elections. PNL wants to postpone them until the end of September or later, while PSD wants to have the presidential elections earlier in September.

The disagreement comes in the context in which PSD’s leader, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu, ranks better in the polls than PNL leader Nicolae Ciuca.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Alexandru Busca)