Parliamentary and Presidential Elections, 28 November and 12 December 2004

In response to an invitation by the Permanent Mission of Romania to the OSCE, ODIHR deployed an election assessment mission for the 28 November parliamentary and presidential elections in Romania.

Headed by Ambassador Stephen Nash of the United Kingdom, the mission was deployed from 20 November to 15 December. For the first round of voting on 28 November, the mission consisted of 18 experts from 13 OSCE participating States, and for the second round of the presidential election on 12 December, it consisted of 15 experts from nine participating States.

According to the mission's final report: "The respective parliamentary and presidential elections offered voters a wide and genuine choice. A high number of political parties, electoral alliances and organizations representing national minorities, as well as individual independent candidates1, participated in the parliamentary elections. For the Chamber of Deputies, voters could choose from between 21 political parties, three political or electoral alliances, 28 organizations representing national minorities, and ten independent candidates. For the Senate, they could choose among 21 parties, three alliances, one national-minority organization, and two independent candidates. [Twelve] candidates competed for the office of President, one of them an independent candidate. The campaign was vigorously contested and debate was lively, although there were occurrences of negative campaigning, as well as instances in which false or deceptive campaign materials were distributed."