Alegeri locale şi generale
On the occasion of the legislative and presidential elections in November and December 2004, Romanian civil society organized itself for the first time into a broad coalition for integrity in politics: the Coalition for a Clean Parliament (CCP). Frustrated by the government's lack of effectiveness in fighting large-scale corruption, civil society took matters into its own hands.The CCP first determined the criteria that would make a candidate unfit for a clean parliament. These criteria were: 1) having repeatedly shifted from one political party to another in search of personal profit; 2) having been accused of corruption on the basis of published and verifiable evidence; 3) having been exposed as an agent of the Securitate (Ceauşescu's former secret service); 4) being the owner of a private firm with important tax arrears to the state budget; 5) being unable to account for the discrepancy between one's officially stated assets and one's income; 6) turning a profit from conflicts of interest involving one's public position. The second step was to discuss these criteria with the leadership of the political parties represented in the Parliament. The most important ones—the Social Democratic Party/Humanist Party of Romania coalition (PSD/PUR), the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR)—agreed with the criteria and the process that we had designed, and they publicly announced their support for the CCP's campaign.
Our third step was to gather information about the candidates of these parties. We collected material published in the press over the years and researched the websites of various public authorities in charge of financial and commercial matters. Then we double-checked our information. Our fourth step was to draw up lists of those candidates who met one or more of the agreed-upon criteria for being unfit to hold a seat in the future Parliament. The resulting "black lists"" were then sent to the political parties, with the request that they re-examine each case and decide whether to withdraw the candidate in question.
The CCP also offered to analyze any cases where individual candidates contested its findings. Step five consisted of the withdrawal by the political parties of significant numbers of their initial candidates. Some of the candidates appealed to the CCP, which approved or rejected their appeals and adjusted its lists accordingly. Our last step was to release the final CCP black lists in the form of nearly two million flyers, distributed in most of the 41 counties of Romania.
Coalition partners:
- Agentia de Monitorizare a Presei - Academia Catavencu
- Fundatia Freedom House
- Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent
- Fundatia Dialog Social
- Asociatia Pro Democratia
- Alianta Civica
- Asociatia pentru Apararea Drepturilor Omului in Romania - Comitetul Helsinki
- Asociatia Revolutionarilor fara Privilegii
- Liga Romana de Presa
- Asociatia Studentilor la Facultatea de Stiinte Politice"