U.S. Protests Vote Tactics in Romania, Recalls Envoy

The Bush Administration called home the U.S. ambassador to Romania on Thursday to protest intimidation of opposition candidates and other irregularities that have marred the campaign for the country’s first multi-party election in more than 40 years.

State Department spokesman Margaret Tutwiler said Ambassador Alan Green Jr. was recalled for consultations as “a public signal of our concern.”

But she said Green’s stay in Washington would be short and that he would return to Bucharest before the May 20 election.

“This decision has been taken in light of the reports of irregularities in the Romanian electoral process which raise questions about whether those elections will be free and fair,” Tutwiler said.

In Bucharest, Prime Minister Petre Roman accused opposition candidates of claiming electoral fraud because they realize that they have no chance of defeating interim President Ion Iliescu.

Western diplomats in the Romanian capital said last week that the election would be “ragged,” but not bad enough to require the postponement that opposition parties have demanded.

“Among the electoral problems which concern us is the incidence of organized acts of intimidation and harassment directed against some opposition parties and candidates,” Tutwiler said. “We are also concerned about complaints that several major parties still encounter obstacles in obtaining their fair share of broadcast time on the publicly controlled radio and television and in distributing their campaign literature through the mail, as well as problems with distributing independent newspapers.”

The two leading opposition parties, the National Peasants Party and the Liberal Party, have complained bitterly that the National Salvation Front, which controls the interim government that replaced executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, has blocked their access to radio, television and the mails.

Liberal Party presidential candidate Radu Campeanu was attacked Saturday by about 40 toughs armed with rocks, bricks and bottles. Green, the U.S. ambassador, issued a statement at that time condemning “all acts of intimidation and violence.”

One Western diplomatic source, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said it is difficult even for informed observers to tell whether the restricted press access and late mail distributions suffered by the National Salvation Front’s political rivals are intentional or simply failures of a chaotic and underdeveloped system.

Diplomats added that they have seen no evidence of direct front involvement in incidents of harassment claimed by opposition parties. But they said the reports are frequent and consistent enough to give cause for concern.

Adrian Nastase, a leading front figure responsible for foreign relations, has denied that the party has in any way obstructed its political opponents. He conceded that numerous incidents of harassment had occurred, but attributed them to rural extremists outside the control of any political party.

The diplomats blamed the incidents in the provinces on former Communists and secret police agents who fear harsh retribution if any political force other than the front should get into power.

The British news agency Reuters reported that a poll published by the state-funded Romanian Opinion Poll Institute indicated that Iliescu would be elected president by a sweeping majority with 69.3% of the vote. It showed 12.9% for Campeanu and 6.4% for National Peasants Party candidate Ion Ratiu.

Campeanu and Ratiu said Wednesday that they would pull out of the election if Iliescu did the same. They accuse him of links with Ceausescu’s hard-line Communist regime and of attempting to hijack Romanian politics.

Roman, the prime minister appointed by Iliescu, said Thursday that Campeanu and Ratiu were saying, in effect: “I have no chance of winning so I’ll withdraw.” He said that such a decision should be left to the electorate.

Times staff writer Carol J. Williams, in Bucharest, contributed to this story.