The presentation will address the territorial cleavages in the voting behavior of Romania following the political regime change in 1989. The results show not only regional, spatial and ethnic cleavages, that means the clear areal differentiation between left and right wing parties votes along the western and eastern cultural provinces (Transylvania and Old Romania), sharp urban-rural differences and evident ethnic votes (capitalized by the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania), but also the increasing role of the Romanian Diaspora’s votes starting with the presidential elections of 2009. The latest appears to be a unique feature of the Romanian electoral behavior, emerged as a result of the emigration of ca. 5.5 million Romanians to Western Europe and to the extension of the voting rights to this large diaspora. The Romanian diaspora’s consistent votes with center right parties and candidates proved to be decisive in the presidential elections since 2004. These results show the importance of territorial mobility and international migration in the electoral behavior of the population, adding new, trans-national cleavages to the voting’s results.
József Benedek
University of Miskolc, Hungary and Babes-Bolyai University Cluj, Romania
ID Abstract: manual – juny 4