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Chairman of the People's Movement Party (PMP) Traian Băsescu said on Saturday that he hadn't been curious to read the report of the parliamentary inquiry committee tasked with investigating the 2009 presidential election because he knows for sure the ballot was not rigged in his favour.
"I think they reached such levels of ridiculousness with these conclusions that they are unworthy of a response on my side; however, I'll reflect on whether to react or not. I haven't had the curiosity to read the report because I know perfectly well that the elections haven't been manipulated in my favour. Proof for this is the fact that whereas our party - PDL at that time - had just one representative in each polling station, they had six parties backing my opponent Geoana. How could that one man possibly manipulate the ballot papers? (...) These are just poor quality speculations," Basescu told the PMP youth Summer School in Neptun on Saturday.
In the report on the 2009 presidential election, the inquiry committee states having found that the presidential institution represented by Traian Basescu and the government headed by Emil Boc had taken concrete actions to manipulate the election result to the benefit of candidate Traian Băsescu.
According to the report, "these actions by the two institutions were perfectly timed, thus proving that they were part of a broad, minutely conceived plan, and that the actions had been premeditated."
"Having in view that the difference between the two candidates was of just 70,321 votes, representing approximately 0.68 percent of the valid votes, as well as the actions to manipulate the election in Traian Băsescu's favor, we conclude that the amplitude of these actions was such as to change the election's outcome," the report reads.
Chairperson of the parliamentary inquiry committee Oana Florea said that the report is only partial, as it fell short of one of its goals, specifically they couldn't find evidence for the involvement of the Romanian Intelligence Service - SRI and the anticorruption agency DNA in the manipulation of the election. Florea said that copies of the committee's report will be sent to the General Prosecution, the Superior Council of Magistrates and the Presidential Administration, all of which have the legal competence to take action on their own motion against the persons and potential electoral offences found by the inquiry committee.
