What happened in the elections on June 9 does not, according to explanations provided by independent observers, exhibit the symptoms of systemic fraud, but rather of a Medieval organization, outdated legislation, and a complete lack of realism regarding the effects of combining elections.
Suspicions of fraud can only be discussed when there is at least one member of the polling station bureau who refuses to sign the minutes or when the data in the minutes signed by all bureau members do not match those on the AEP website. This is very easy to verify.
In such cases, a recount and clarification based on evidence is necessary to determine the cause: error or theft. And theft should result in criminal charges.
However, when the minutes are unanimously signed, meaning that the data entered there are endorsed by the representatives of the represented parties, they cannot claim irregularities. If we were to accept this, it would mean that anyone, at any time, indefinitely, could request and obtain a recount simply because they have a suspicion.
But the fact that there are no signs of systemic fraud does not mean that the elections on June 9 were conducted properly. They were not. The main source of problems was the combination of local and European elections.
The main concern was that voters would be confused, that they would mix up the 5 ballots. It is possible that this happened, and it could be a cause of the high number of invalidated votes. Not the only cause, and I say this as a voter who invalidated their vote - one of the three options for voting.
But as we have seen, the combination confused, first and foremost, the polling station bureaus up to the Central Electoral Bureau.
Different rules, a very large volume of ballots with different weights, very poor quality paper, five ballot boxes, ballots mistakenly placed in a box other than the intended one, for mayor instead of county council president, for example, all on the heads of the polling station bureau at the end of a busy and difficult day to manage.
Beyond what is happening in sectors 1 and 2, we have a crisis example in Gorj, for instance, where the battle was fought between the ruling parties, a recount was ordered, but the bags could not be found. So, a frantic search through trucks began.
Not to mention the apocalyptic scenes with polling station presidents sleepless for days, exhausted and collapsed over the bags of votes.
Even without systemic fraud, this total chaos has very serious effects because it concerns the fundamental process of democracy - elections. If they are not conducted correctly, regardless of the reason, the entire structure collapses.
And so, Romanians' trust in democratic mechanisms, in the value and correctness of the vote, is not at the highest level. The Stalinist formula "it doesn't matter who votes, it matters who counts" is often quoted, and few understand, as mentioned above, that real fraud is only possible with the complicity of all members of the polling station bureau.
Furthermore, on top of these scandals, we have the farce of playing with the dates of the presidential elections. When we were interested, we held them in September. When we are no longer interested, we push them back to November. You don't do such things even with elections for the staircase head, let alone the highest office in the state.