Sixteen Save Romania Union (USR) MPs and party branch leaders have signed a letter challenging the party conference which elected the new party leadership on Saturday, claiming that the National Bureau did everything possible to cancel the elections in Bucharest, elections on whose basis Cristian Seidler would have won the party leadership “legitimately and cleanly,” and organised parallel non-statutory elections, multiple abuses being committed. They ask Dan Barna, “the president elected at a vitiated party conference,” to take note of the situation created by the illegalities that he endorsed or even orchestrated and to recognise “the crisis of morality and legitimacy at the helm of the USR.”
The signatories of the letter claim that the observance of rules is one of USR’s founding principles and such observance starts within the USR, adding that if the party is corrupted from within it cannot fulfil its public mission of cleaning up Romanian politics, and that it is their duty to publicly signal that the rules were repeatedly broken by USR’s National Bureau.
They also claim that the election of delegates set to represent Bucharest at the party conference, election that took place on October 15, was statutory but the result was not deemed favourable because 58 of the 63 delegates were backing Cristian Seidler. With this result in Bucharest and with the support he enjoyed across the country (96 delegates were absent or cancelled their votes), Seidler would have won the presidency in the first round – legally, legitimately, and cleanly, the signatories add.
“The National Bureau did everything possible to cancel the elections in Bucharest and organised parallel, non-statutory elections that took three days to “organise.” Multiple abuses were carried out: voters were designated by the National Bureau, and persons that did not lodge bids to be delegates were included on the lists. The Bucharest Municipality’s Municipal Arbitration Commission has noted these irregularities and has declared the parallel elections of October 23-25 as being non-statutory. Consequently, the Extraordinary Party Conference is non-statutory, because it received delegates elected in a non-statutory manner. As we saw at the vote, the result would have been entirely different had these statute violations not occurred,” the 16 USR MPs and party branch leaders who signed the letter emphasise.
They are asking Dan Barna, “the president elected at a vitiated party conference,” as well as those who “pushed him in front,” to take note of the situation created by the illegalities they endorsed or even orchestrated.
“We demand the recognition of the crisis of morality and legitimacy at the helm of USR, the urgent remedying of the problems and the return to the principle of observing rules, including and especially within the party,” reads the letter signed by those challenging the USR party conference.
Nicusor Dan: Non-statutory cancellation of elections in Bucharest decided who will be USR president. I left the party thinking I was leaving behind an organisation of principled persons
Former USR President Nicusor Dan (photo) posted on Facebook, on Sunday evening, a new message in which he challenges the Party Conference that elected the party’s new leadership, stating that he left the party thinking he was leaving behind an organisation of principled persons, that he appreciated especially those who told him bluntly they would vote in favour of USR adopting a stance on the referendum for the family because it is a principled decision for them and he is now “shocked” to see that precisely those persons are now not reacting to abuse, to illegality, to the hijacking of the goals for which the party was created. He also stated that, even though he is no longer a member of USR, he has a responsibility toward the people who worked for the party and who are now telling him they can no longer bear the illegality and hijacking of USR’s goals.
In his new message, the former USR leader states that the non-statutory cancellation of the elections in Bucharest decided who will be USR’s president.
“Several important USR members are complaining about the irregularities of yesterday’s Party Conference. Now we have the figures. At yesterday’s USR party conference, 96 of the 276 delegates (of which approximately 90 were from outside Bucharest) were absent or cancelled their votes. If we add the 58 pro-Seidler delegates that were initially elected in Bucharest, Cristian Seidler would have won in the first round (with around 150-160 votes). Based on the system imposed in the second elections in Bucharest, he would have won a maximum of 35 votes there. Namely, he would have won a total of 125 votes at the Party Conference and would have lost to the Barna-Alexandrescu coalition in the runoff. The non-statutory cancellation of the elections in Bucharest hence decided the USR President,” Nicusor Dan wrote.
He added that he left the party thinking he was leaving behind an organisation of principled persons, that he appreciated especially those who told him bluntly that they would vote in favour of USR adopting a stance on the referendum for the family because it is a principled decision for them, and now he is “shocked” to see precisely those persons not reacting to abuse, illegality, the hijacking of the goals for which the party was created.
“I left the party thinking I leave behind an organisation of principled people which walks on its path. I respected the decision of the majority. I appreciated especially the people who told me bluntly (and I have the image of that moment etched in my memory) that they will vote in favour of taking a stance on the referendum for the family, because it’s a principled decision for them, because their principles prevail over my option. Well, I’m shocked to see that exactly those persons are not reacting to abuse, to illegality, to the hijacking of the goals for which the organisation was created. The jurist parliamentarians which USR prides itself with when they oppose the PSD’s attacks on the judiciary are saying that the elections in Bucharest were cancelled in a non-statutory manner, are asking for independent arbitration, and nobody from the camp advantaged by the decision wants a debate on the essence, consults a lawyer friend,” the former USR leader adds.
Nicusor Dan also says that people who joined USR for him, who worked for USR for more than two years, and whom he asked to remain party members after he left, have stayed within the party and are now telling him they can no longer bear the illegality and the hijacking of USR’s goals.
“I have a responsibility toward these people. My message yesterday (maybe in too harsh of terms, but correct in essence) and my message today are an assumption of this responsibility,” Nicusor Dan added in the message he posted on Facebook on Sunday evening.
