Violence In Romania: Early Returns On The Communists’ Rigging Of The May Elections

The Center for Security Policy today decried the use of force by the Romanian communist regime, the National Salvation Front, against those protesting what the Center agrees were rigged, unfair elections on 20 May 1990. According to published returns, the Front candidate, Ion Iliescu, won the presidential election and his forces gained large majorities in both houses of parliament.

In an analysis released on 11 May 1990, entitled Romania: Will the Communist Successors to Ceausescu Permit Truly Fair and Free Elections?, the Center warned that, as a result of restrictions placed on the genuinely democratic opposition parties during the campaign and the Front’s unbridled access to and use of government resources, the final elections might not be fair. Regrettably, as documented in a new paper, Not Free, Not Fair: An Assessment of the 20 May 1990 Elections in Romania, recent events in Romania have vindicated these fears.

The Center’s analysis concludes that the National Salvation Front did indeed use governmental resources to an unfair advantage. Both opposition leaders and western observers have described serious problems with both the campaign and the election itself. One such observer, Keith Schuette who is president of the U.S. National Republican Institute for International Affairs, an arm of the National Endowment for Democracy, said, "I feel this was the most unfair campaign I have ever witnessed." Ion Ratiu, presidential candidate of the National Peasant Party, stated, "the run-up to the elections has been totally undemocratic." So significant were these electoral problems that the U.S. State Department at one point criticized the Front for permitting "irregularities" and called for an investigation. The regime’s violent repression yesterday of Romanian citizens who are saying the same thing shows the folly of State’s subsequent decision to validate the results of this fraudulent election.

Frank Gaffney, Jr., director of the Center, observed, "The United States must be no less courageous or tenacious than the people of Eastern Europe who, in their struggle for liberty, are resisting the efforts of totalitarian governments to cloak themselves in democracy’s mantle even as they engage in classic anti-democratic practices. For the sake of freedom, we must be prepared to distinguish clearly between what is democracy, and what is not."

Dr. Constantine Menges, senior associate with the Center and director of its Program on Transitions to Democracy, added, "This unfair election has set a very bad precedent for the cause of genuine democracy in Eastern Europe, a region where communist parties have long manipulated campaigns and rigged the ballot boxes. The U.S. and the European democracies must not treat the Romanian regime as a democratic government."

Copies of these papers may be obtained by contacting the Center.