Proposal to change the local electoral system in Bucharest
The purpose of the system proposed for debate is a fundamental change in the attitude of citizens toward the electoral process. Under the current system, the citizen is overwhelmed with all sorts of ads and harassed by various candidates during the campaign and his role in the management of the city/country ends with the casting of his vote. The system proposed here is supposed to place a limit on the media assault, which depresses, disgusts and annoys citizens, and to establish a new relationship between candidates and citizens. Another problem is the high cost of election campaigns, which acts as a barrier and restricts the pool of candidates to those who can enlist the help of a party or are wealthy enough to finance their own campaigns.
In order to close the huge gap in promotion power between independent and party candidates, which was created by the campaign budgets that parties can raise, the following campaign financing system is proposed:
Local authorities will print before the elections a number of vouchers (the exact fixed value of vouchers to be determined later) equal to the number of voters registered with the Electoral Bureau (Biroul Electoral). Each voter has the right to claim a single voucher, which will be released following a check of his/her voter/identity card. The voucher can be pledged to the candidate of the voter’s choice.
Candidates will receive from the local authorities a down payment, which is supposed to cover the expenses incurred during the first week of their campaign. The purpose of this down payment is to allow the candidates to campaign until they can convince a number of voters to pledge their vouchers in their favor.
Parties are forbidden to finance a candidate during the campaign. The candidates’ budgets will be made solely of the down payment received from the local authorities and from vouchers pledged by voters.
Outdoor campaign advertising will be limited to the display of posters and banners on the city’s thoroughfares, in plazas and in subway stations. Since most of the residents of the city use a thoroughfare, visit a plaza or take the subway train at least once a week, voters will have plenty of time to see the advertising materials and seek more information. Turnout during the latest local elections was 20%, which means that restricting advertising to the thoroughfares and plazas is highly unlikely to prevent voters from getting the information they need. Other measures can be taken if and when turnout improves. The candidates are also allowed to distribute copies of their programs and platforms wherever they speak and to publish them on the Internet.
Each candidate will be allowed to buy TV and radio space, as well as advertising space in the newspapers. The candidates will be limited in their clips and ads to an overview of their city management programs.
The local authorities will set up in the main plazas of the city (Piaţa Unirii, Piaţa Universităţii etc.) areas where the candidates will discuss at length their programs and platforms and will answer questions from voters. The time granted to each candidate will be limited by the number of candidates, but the city has enough plazas and high traffic areas to avoid an undue queuing of candidates in a single spot. These areas will be the framework of the interaction between candidates and voters, but candidates and encouraged to walk the streets of the city in order to talk directly to the citizens. The purpose of this system is to make the direct interaction between the candidate and his prospective voters the main feature of the campaign.
The campaign budget and the role of candidates
Candidates will have three weeks at their disposal to present in detail their city operations and financing management programs. The presenting will be done, mainly, by free speeches held before voters.
Candidates can make use of their campaign budgets any way they want, within the bounds of the above-mentioned rules. The Electoral Bureau will set a series of thresholds, which will be used during the campaign. If a candidate receives a certain number of vouchers from voters (the exact number remains to be determined), the value of the initial down payment will be deducted from the campaign budget and returned to the city’s coffers. Upon reaching the next threshold, the local authorities will deduct from the candidate’s campaign budget the value of post-elections clean-up of banners and posters, based on the number of such advertising materials used by the candidate.
If the campaign budget was not fully spent, the candidate has the right to keep the money given to him by voters. The money will be placed in a bank account, different from the candidate’s personal account(s) or the accounts of parties or local authorities (if the candidate won). The use of these funds will be limited by law to promoting the candidate’s views on public issues or to finance awareness and education campaigns. Candidates have 3 years at their disposal to use the money. Money still not spent 12 months before the next elections will return to the city’s coffers and used to finance the next round of campaigns.
Citizen information and the role of parties
Under the new system, parties are allowed to propose candidates and to offer them campaign staffs, which will be paid from the campaign budget. They are also encouraged to use their members to urge citizens to go to the polls on election day. The parties are not allowed to finance or promote candidates.
Citizens who want to get to know the candidates or read their city management programs will be able to do so by direct contact with the candidates and the reading of management programs distributed by campaign staffs wherever candidates speak or via the Internet. Citizens who pick up their vouchers will be able to apply for shorter hours at work during the campaign.
