2018 Plushunian vice presidential election

Elections were held in Plushunia on 3 and 4 August 2018, to elect the Vice President of Plushunia. In the election was used a two round election system. This was the first election for Vice President, as the incumbent Vice President, Rechi was appointed by the President. The President and Vice President are elected separately, as the Vice President's term (1 year) is shorter than the President's term (2 years). In the election Social Alliance candidate Cățeluș Slobozeanu, managed to defeat ALDe candidate Ghiță Purcel by 4 votes in the second round.

Background

A Vice Presidential election was proposed since June 2018, when the President's and the presidential pair's powers were first defined (informally, as no Plushunian Constitution exists), but its date was not clearly set. In late June and early July though Vice President Rechi called for Vice Presidential elections in August and he declared: "After we clearly defined the powers of the Presidential Pair, I realised that is very unfair for me (a Vice President appointed by the President) to occupy this important position, as the Vice President must be freely elected, not appointed. To end this, I propose organising Vice Presidential elections as soon as possible." Following the statement of Rechi, the Government officially set the election date for the first week of August, and around 15 June PNL leader Ghiță Purcel, PSD leader Catelus Slobozeanu and FN leader Iepuroi Hop announced that they will run in the election.

Candidates and pre-election agreements

Cățeluș Slobozeanu

As soon as Rechi resigned from the office of Vice President, the Social Democrat Cățeluș Slobozeanu announced that he will run for the office of Vice President. As part of the coalition agreements between the member parties of the then-governing Social Alliance, the entire alliance (apart from the Democratic Party, which then went into opposition and joined the Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats) agreed in the Second General Congress of the Social Alliance (15-30 July 2018) to support Slobozeanu as Vice President. Slobozeanu ran in the election on a moderate, mostly Social Democratic platform, contrasting with the Social Alliance's gradual shift to more Socialist policies (workers' cooperatives, workers' self management of the companies). However Slobozeanu's nomination as vice presidential candidate of the Social Alliance was considered surprising by many Plushunians, who thought that then-Prime MinisterUrsu Polarescu would run in the election, with some political analysts even thinking that the relative political anonymity of Slobozeanu was the cause of the close scores in the second round of the election.

Ghiţă Purcel

Soon after Slobozeanu announced that he will run in the election supported by the Social Alliance, the members of National Liberal Party announced that the party will endorse Liberal leader Ghiță Purcel for the presidential election. However the Liberals were not a large party at the time, so they decided to negotiate with other parties for support in the election and the possible formation of an electoral alliance. Soon, the National Christian Democratic Peasants' Party, whose leaders were unhappy with the downfall of the Democratic Convention (the alliance which the party was part of) declared support for Ghiță Purcel, followed by the Democratic Party(which was dissatisfied with the "unfair" distribution of the ministerial portofolios in the Polarescu II cabinet and with the policies of the Social Alliance, which the Democrats were part of), the Democrats leaving the Social Alliance and forming a new Liberal-led alliance (consisting of PNL, PD and PNŢCD), which was named the Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats.

Iepuroi Hop

After Rechi's resignation, Iepuroi Hop, the then-leader of the National Front and of the Democratic Convention announced that he will run on behalf of his alliance. However, the formation of the Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats by the National Liberal Party led to the departure of the National Christian Democratic Peasants' Party (one of the two member parties of the Democratic Convention) from the Democratic Convention led to the dissolution of the alliance, with Iepuroi Hop being only supported by the National Front.

Rechi

References

Vice Presidential elections to be held tomorrow (Plushunian News Service article)