Clotilde Armand Accuses PM Ciolacu of Sending Police to

The Mayor of District 1 of Bucharest, Clotilde Armand, accused on Monday morning that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu ordered the Gendarmerie to pick up and destroy the ballot bags from the Electoral Office of Sector 1, presenting images from the headquarters in Piața Amzei. The gendarmerie rejected the statements of the mayor of Sector 1, stating that the gendarmerie do not manage electoral materials, but only provide security.

“Instead of agreeing to recount the votes, Marcel Ciolacu ordered the Gendarmerie to come and pick up and destroy the bags with votes in Piaţa Amzei from Municipal Electoral Office, District1. He no longer has the patience to wait for the appeal from the Municipal Electoral Office, he can’t wait any longer nor the verdict of the magistrates regarding the forgeries in the minutes, to clarify the situation of the hundreds of extra votes thrown in the ballot boxes or how thousands of white ballots disappeared into nothingness. He wants to make any recount impossible”, Clotilde Armand stated in Facebook post, also presenting images.

“The traces of electoral fraud in District 1 are being quickly erased. What this government is doing is an attack on democracy and the values of the rule of law,” said the mayor of District 1.

In retort, the Bucharest Gendarmerie rejected the accusations, stating that the gendarmes do not manage electoral materials and do not carry out electoral activities, but only provide security.

“In relation to the statements that appeared in the public space, by which a candidate for the District 1 City Hall accuses that “the Gendarmerie picks up, for the purpose of destruction, the bags with votes from Piaţa Amzei, from the Electoral Office of District 1”, we specify that this information is completely false,” the Gendarmerie of the Capital reported on Monday.

“At the same time, our unit, through specific attributions and in accordance with the provisions of Law no. 33 of 2007 (republished) regarding the organization and conduct of the elections for the European Parliament, with subsequent amendments and additions and GD no. 947 of 2004 regarding the establishment of the duration and conditions for keeping the materials necessary for voting, ensures the security of the transport of the electoral materials, which are carried out with vehicles that do not belong to the Romanian Gendarmerie”, the institution also pointed out.

“Last but not least, we emphasize the fact that the people who handle the bags, highlighted in the footage taken in the area of the Electoral Office of Sector 1, are not employees of the Romanian Gendarmerie”, the cited source added.

The rerun of the elections, dismissed

The Central Electoral Bureau rejected on Saturday the request of the United Right Alliance to cancel the elections in District 1. The Mayor of Sector 1, Clotilde Armand, on Thursday asked for the recount of the votes in Sector 1, in the local elections on Sunday, stating that she has clear evidence and mathematics that this election was flagrantly rigged and “Ciolacu and Ciucă are participants in the biggest electoral fraud after 1946″.

The Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) rejected, as unfounded, the request to cancel the local elections in Sector 1, made by Clotilde Armand, as a candidate for the position of mayor of the sector from the United Right Alliance.

BEC argued that “the petitioner’s reports do not include other reasons and are not accompanied by evidence to prove them”.

Votes are being recounted in two polling stations in District 2

On the other hand, the Electoral Bureau of the District 1 (BES) approved the recount of the votes from sections 195 and 265, “a tiny fraction” of those that raise question marks, said councilor Radu Mihaiu, candidate of the United Right Alliance for a new mandate.

“One week after the vote, BES admits that there are serious problems (in part). Only 2 out of 36 sections will be open. They approved the recount of two sections: 195 and 265; a tiny fraction of those that raise big question marks. They rejected the bulk of it. They didn’t check the polls where the ballots were falsified. They didn’t want to open the polls, saying that they didn’t get them. ballot box’. No one explains that anymore…we are being thrown crumbs, while the answers to the questions remain closed in the vote bags”, wrote Radu Mihaiu.

He announced that the representatives of the United Right Alliance will check these two sections. “We will gather all the possible evidence that at some point the justice will need. There are at least 8 criminal complaints after the vote in Sector 2. If politically there is a risk of covering up the fraud, there will always be the justice that will be able to shed light” , added Radu Mihaiu.

The elections in Districts 1 and 2 were marked by disputes between the incumbent mayors, Clotilde Armand and Radu Mihaiu, USR candidates for a new mandate, and those of the PNL-PSD, the former accusing serious irregularities in the vote counting process. Both the PSD candidate from Sector 1, George Tuță, and the PSD-PNL candidate from Sector 2, Rareș Hopincă, proclaimed their victory in the elections, with a difference of several hundred votes. Both Clotilde Armand and Radu Mihaiu announced that they filed criminal complaints for vote fraud.

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