Clotilde Armand, the Frenchwoman who narrowly lost the mayor seat in Bucharest’s richest district (District 1) and the Save Bucharest Union - USB party, which has supported her in the elections, have asked a vote recount in 18 polling stations in the district, invoking statistical anomalies in the results.

However, the constituency electoral bureau in District 1 rejected the candidate’s request, reports local Agerpres.

"I must admit that I am extremely upset. Regardless of the result, I believe it is normal in a country like Romania, in Bucharest, in District 1 to make this minimal effort of recounting the votes. It’s not an abusive request, it is a justified one," Clotilde Armand said in a video posted on Facebook right after finding out the electoral bureau’s decision to reject USB’s request. "Anyone who sees the numbers understand that it makes sense, and it is even necessary to make this verification. This is a complete abuse," she added.

The Save Bucharest Union (USB) party decided to ask for a recount because there has been a “strong significant negative correlation” between the votes in favor of Clotilde Armand and the votes declared invalid at several polling stations, USB leader Nicusor Dan said in a Facebook post.

"In other words, the larger the number of invalid votes, the smaller the number of votes for the USB candidate for mayor of District 1, Clotilde Armand,” reads the post.

The exit polls announced on Sunday evening, right after the voting closed, were presenting Clotilde Armand as being slightly in front of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) candidate. However, things changed overnight. Official partial results published by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) on Monday morning, indicated the PSD candidate as the winner, with 31.1% of the votes, while Armand got 28.7%.

On Monday, June 6, Nicusor Dan explained on Facebook that Clotilde Armand won the elections in the polling stations where USB had observers, but lost by a significant margin in the other ones, which only represented about a quarter of the total number of polling stations in District 1.

Romania organized local elections on June 5. The latest partial results show PSD candidate Gabriela Firea as the new general mayor of Bucharest, with a score of 43.14%. Nicusor Dan, the USB candidate for this seat, came second with slightly over 30% of votes.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com