IMPARȚIALITATE·INTEGRITATE·EFICIENȚĂ
October, 7th, 2013
No. 843/VIII/3
Press release
The prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate sent to trial a number of 75 defendants, charged with the offences stipulated in the file known to the public opinion under the name "Fraud at Referendum":
I. NICOLAE-LIVIU DRAGNEA, General Secretary of a political party (at the time of the deeds), currently a Deputy and Vice Prime Minister, who was charged with the offence of using the influence or authority by a person who holds a leading position in a party, for the purpose of obtaining undue advantages for himself/herself or for someone else
The indictment drawn up by the prosecutors stipulates the following facts:
When the referendum from July 29th 2013 took place, the defendant Nicolae-Liviu Dragnea, in his capacity as General Secretary of a political party, used the influence and authority he had within that party for the purpose of obtaining some undue non-patrimonial advantages of an electoral nature, for the political alliance that included the party represented by the defendant. The purpose was to meet the quorum with the help of the votes obtained in other conditions than the legal ones.
In this regard, Nicolae-Liviu Dragnea coordinated a complex mechanism, in which he involved several people whom he could influence by virtue of his position, intending in fact to defraud the results regarding the vote participation. Actually, he used his influence and authority as follows:
1. As a first step, the defendant Nicolae-Liviu Dragnea, in his capacity as General Secretary of the political party he was representing, but also as a coordinator of the election campaign, he issued two letters, on the 12th and on the 13th of July 2013, addressed to the county organizations of that party, i.e. to the campaign presidents and directors, but also to the mayors of the same party. According to those letters, in order to determine the voters to take part in the referendum in proportion of 60%, the recipients were requested to take some measures incriminated by the Law no. 3/2000 (in fact, they were supposed to promise material advantages in exchange for the voters’ participation) and they were also requested to propose to the Prefects to set up polling stations in the touristic resorts which were not in fact administrative-territorial units.
2. In parallel, the defendant Nicolae-Liviu Dragnea coordinated a complex IT system which he used to send messages, instructions, recommendations meant to determine the citizens, by means prohibited by law, to take part in the referendum. All these messages, instructions, recommendations were addressed to the County campaign coordinators/ the mayors/ the party activists. This system had two IT components:
- a component which allowed the exchange of messages (SMS), in real time and among thousands of users, by calling the designated phone number "1855" or by receiving messages from this number
- an Internet application allowing a small number of people (the so called "County coordinators" or "coordinators") to obtain in real time, information about the number of voters and how they voted in all the polling stations, and also allowing them to manually introduce such data in the portals: referendum1.psd / referendum5.psd.ro.
The access to the IT system was allowed to the coordinators simply by introducing a user name and a password which they had previously received in a message (SMS) from the phone number 1855. The users granted the access of the members of the polling stations and of other people. This IT system made sure:
- to communicate each hour the citizens’ presence to the vote, which allowed the party coordinators to identify the polling stations with a poor attendance at the polls;
- to communicate messages, containing instructions or recommendations addressed to the coordinators and/or to the members of the polling stations and to other people, so that they could take steps to artificially increase the number of voters in the polling stations with a poor attendance, by means prohibited by law;
- to obtain precise information, during the voting process (and not after 11:00 p.m., July 29th 2012, when the polling stations were closed), about how people had voted throughout the country, namely, how many votes of "YES" and how many of "NO" had been expressed. Actually, the requirement was met. Thus, a number of 4400 communications of such type had been received during the voting process.
3. Moreover, Nicolae-Liviu Dragnea ordered some people from his entourage (party members from the County of Teleorman, where he was the president of the County Council) to do their best, including by infringing the legal provisions, to determine the people to come to vote, in order to meet the participation threshold necessary to validate the referendum.
II. The criminal acts carried out by the defendant Nicolae-Liviu Dragnea were supported by 74 people, presidents and members of some polling station from localities in Teleorman, Vrancea, Gorj and Olt Counties, who were charged with the offence of forgery, by any means, of the documents from the voting electoral bureaus and introducing in the ballot boxes a number of ballots in addition to ballots cast by the voters (provided by art. 55, point 1 from the Law nr. 3/2000 on organizing and carrying out the referendum), offences committed under the form of authorship, complicity or incitement.
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 105 Piatra Olt, Olt County
PREDUȚ SIMONA-CRISTINA and PREDUȚ MARIUS-MARINEL, members, authorship
BABA CONSTANTINA, president and DIȚĂ COSTINEL-LEONTIN, local councilor within the Local Council of Piatra Olt, incitement
COANDĂ NICOLAE, FLORESCU MARIN, RARIȚĂ ION, TRIȚĂ CONSTANȚA, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 142 Ciuperceni, Teleorman County
VIȘAN MARIOARA, president and BEZNEA ION, MARIOARA ADRIAN, CULCEA VICTOR, STOICEA LUMINIȚA-ELENA, BARBU TEODORA-RAMONA, ZAMFIR MARIN-MARIUS, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 1 Alexandria, Teleorman County
ULMEANU IULIAN, president and BĂLĂNESCU GEORGE-TIBERIU, IONESCU ION, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 244 Plosca, Teleorman County
CURCAN CONSTANTIN, president and FLOREA MARIANA, RUSU DĂNUȚ, ENE VASILICĂ, NEDELEA DORINEL, MĂRUNȚELU AUREL, PÂRVA ION, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 314 Țigănești, Teleorman County
DUMITRACHE ION, president and PIELEANU ION, POROSCHIANU MARIN, DINU NICUȘOR SORIN, TRIFU NICOLAE, MITRAN DORINA, CIUPERCĂ CRISTINA, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 112 Bragadiru,Teleorman County
FILIP ALINA-FLORINA, BARBU NICUȘOR, FERĂȘTEANU ION-DOREL, VÎLCAN TUDOR-DOREL, STEMATE MARIN, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 113 Bragadiru,Teleorman County
PARTOCICĂ COSTICĂ, president and MIHAI ION, MATEI DANIELA, MITROI VASILE, PASCU MARIAN FLORIN, LUNGU PETRE, LEBEJOARĂ LILIANA CARLA, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 114 Bragadiru,Teleorman County
DUDE ILIE, NISTOR MARIN, members, authorship and NISTOR ANGELICA-MARIANA, person without special capacity, authorship and removing or destruction of documents
SANDU ILEANA, president and RIZEA OLGA-IULIA, PEȚA GABRIEL, NĂDRAG ION-PAUL, CRISTEA TUDOR, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 287 Suraia, Vrancea County
STAN VILI, president, complicity and two offences of abusive behavior
CRISTIAN CORINA, HANGANU MARIA, BOBOCEA (former VELNIȚĂ) SIMONA, MANOLE-MIC FLORENTIN, SÎNGEREAN SORIN, TOTOLICIU ION, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 147 Bâlteni, Gorj County
ZGLOBIU ANCA-MARIA, president and VLĂDUȚ DANIELA, VESPE ADRIANA, BÎLTEANU PAULINA, FLORESCU TEODORA, ILIE MARCEL, members, complicity
The Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 148 Bâlteni, Gorj County
FILIP CONSTANTIN, president and ȘOROP MARIAN, LUNGU AURORA-IRINA, SĂULESCU ELENA, NEȘA NICOLAE, CĂLĂRAȘU GHEORGHE-DANIEL, COCORANU MARIA, members, complicity
RĂBOJ DANIEL, Mayor of the Mayor’s Office of Bragadiru, Teleorman County, giving bribe
MITROI MARIN, member of the Electoral Bureau of the Polling Station no. 112 Bragadiru, Teleorman County, taking bribe and complicity to forgery, by any means, of the documents from the electoral bureaus
The people involved in the voting process – presidents and members of the polling stations – were charged mainly in relation to the fact that they infringed their office duties i.e. ensuring a fair voting process. Thus, they facilitated the forgery of the electoral lists (both permanent lists and supplementary lists) by adding people who did not request a mobile ballot box, people who were not present at the vote or who were not in Romania at the time of the referendum, of forging their signatures and introducing in the ballot boxes a number of ballots that matched the forged signatures. This is how the total number of the cast ballots was artificially increased, by including the ballots obtained by forging the signatures.
The analysis of the possible offences committed in the polling stations across the entire national territory could not be objectively included in the current criminal case, the described and proved situations representing only the most relevant examples from the point of view of percentage of the voting presence compared to the national average.
The case was sent to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, considering the capacity of the Deputy held by Nicolae-Liviu Dragnea.
It should be mentioned that this stage of the criminal proceedings represents, according to the Criminal Procedure Code, the completion of the criminal investigation and the referral of the indictment to the court, for trial, a situation which cannot, under any circumstances infringe the principle of presumption of innocence.
THE INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE