Country Report “Who does (not) vote in Romania?”

These conclusions emerge from the latest country report of FES Romania: “Who does (not) vote in Romania?”, authors: Mircea Comșa and Claudiu Tufiș. The report can be downloaded here: https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/wien/21634.pdf

The report puts the levels of voter turnout in Romania into comparative perspective, discusses the issue of emigration as one of the determining factors influencing electoral participation (or absenteeism) in the case of Romania and focuses on the most important inequalities identified in data from official sources, surveys and exit polls.

The report puts forward several recommendations and suggests different solutions to increase voter turnout. First, the authorities should continue on the current path of eliminating institutional barriers and improving procedures for diaspora voters. Second, political parties need to come up with a better offer for voters. Thirdly, another solution could be to lower the voting age to 16, initially for the European Parliament elections.

The country report is part of a larger international project “Unequal Democracies” coordinated by the FES Competence Centre Democracy of the Future in Vienna. The project “Who Does (not) Vote?” analyses trends in voter turnout in 30 OSCE countries over time and harmonises existing data sources since 1970 and compares them by gender, age groups, social classes and education levels. More details on the project findings and the specific country reports can be found here: https://democracy.fes.de/topics/inequality-democracy.html