2024 Romanian local elections

Local elections were held in Romania on 9 June 2024. They were the eighth post-1989 local elections in the country. The previous Romanian local elections in 2020 were won by the National Liberal Party (PNL), even though the Social Democratic Party (PSD) came in with significantly more County Council Presidents and mayors than the National Liberals.

Therefore, the de facto winner of the previous Romanian local elections was the Social Democratic Party, in spite of the de jure victory of the National Liberal Party, according to popular vote and thereby overall political score.

The 2020 USR-PLUS Alliance (which formally fused into a single political party and changed its name to the Save Romania Union) came in third with respect to popular vote yet failed to obtain an important nationwide representation (for mayors, local councilors or county councilors). Meanwhile, the PNL enlarged itself at local political level nationwide with the integral absorption of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) during late March 2022.^[1]

The main five political contenders in the 2024 Romanian local elections were the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, the United Right Alliance, and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania.

Background

The government that organized the local elections were the Ciolacu Cabinet representing the National Coalition for Romania (CNR), a grand coalition between the two largest political parties in Romania in terms of parliamentary and local representation.

In response to the formation of an electoral alliance between the two members of the CNR for the 2024 European Parliament election in Romania, as well as locally in some races, the Save Romania Union, People's Movement Party and Force of the Right came together to form the United Right Alliance.^[2]

Following the 2020 Romanian parliamentary election, the right-wing populist Alliance for the Union of Romanians became a new serious contender in Romanian politics. Ahead of the elections, the party organized a recruitment drive to enlarge its presence at a local level.^[3] As a result, it became the party with the third largest number of candidates after the PSD and PNL.

In Bucharest, incumbent mayor Nicușor Dan had expressed his intention to be a candidate again, hoping that he will be supported by the main centre-right political parties which previously endorsed him in the 2020 Romanian local elections.^[4]^[5] However, the National Liberal Party declined to support Nicușor Dan for another term as Mayor of Bucharest,^[6] choosing instead to form an electoral alliance with the Social Democrats and back a common candidate, namely Cătălin Cîrstoiu.^[7] After a brief scandal surrounding Crîstoiu however, the two parties decided to run opposing candidates for the Mayor of Bucharest election, maintaining the alliance only at the sector level.^[8] Polling indicated the PSD candidate, Gabriela Firea was going to be the main competitor to Dan, who announced he will run as an independent candidate, as in 2020, and received the backing of the ADU and REPER.^[9]

Most opinion polls showed the Social Democratic Party (PSD) as either the main or overall winning party in several major cities and towns across Romania, including, most notably, the capital, Bucharest. The political trend, according to the polls, was that the Social Democratic Party is the dominant political party in the south and east of Romania (i.e. in Muntenia, Oltenia and Western Moldavia), the National Liberal Party in the centre and north of the country (i.e. in Transylvania and Bukovina), the Save Romania Union sporadically at urban level throughout the country, predominantly in the south-western part of the country, in Banat, and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians maintaining a somewhat consistent presence throughout the country, with lower scores in urban areas.

Electoral system

Local elections are organized in Romania to elect 4 local authorities: the County Council President, County Council, mayor and Local Council. The electoral system for local elections in Romania is outlined in Law no. 115 of May 19, 2015.^[10] Candidates for the office of mayor, County Council President as well as Local and County Councils councilor are elected by popular vote. They serve a four-year term, with the possibility of re-election. Voters vote for candidates or lists of candidates competing in their specific constituency.

The mayors and County Council Presidents are elected in a single round of voting. The candidate who obtains the most validly cast votes is elected. In the event of a tie, a runoff voting round is organized. For County and Local Councils, the threshold for earning seats is determined by the constituency electoral bureau. It is 5% in the case of party lists, 7% for electoral alliances with two member parties, and 8% if the alliance includes three or more members.

Independent candidates can run for any of the offices up for election if they provide a list of names and signatures proving they are supported by at least 1% of eligible voters in the constituency where they intend to run. This number cannot be smaller than 100 people in communes, 500 in towns, 1,000 in municipalities and 2,000 for County-level offices.