Ion Aliman victory as mayor, in Romania's local elections, is indeed unique ! This election is being viewed as an indicator of how an upcoming General Election in December might unfold for the country's minority government, currently led by the National Liberal Party.
It is 30
years since Romania ousted communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in a revolution
that ended decades of communist rule in the country. The dictator and his wife
were killed by a firing squad on December 25, 1989, after days of a bloody
national uprising. The Communist regime in Romania, a totalitarian system from
its establishment until its collapse, was one based on the constant violation
of human rights, on the supremacy of a hostile ideology to open society, on the
monopoly of power exercised by a small group of individuals, on repression,
intimidation and corruption," says a report.
Some 19 million registered
voters across Romania are choosing local officials, council presidents and
mayors to fill more than 43,000 positions across the EU member state. The most
closely-watched race will be for the next mayor of the capital, Bucharest, a
race between the National Liberal Party challenger Nicusor Dan and Social
Democrats' incumbent Gabriela Firea. Other candidates include former Romanian
president Traian Băsescu and former Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, now
leader of the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals (ALDE). The election is
expected to reveal the strength of the NLP which has led the government since
the Social Democratic Party (PSD) fell from power late last year.
Moving away, in UK, over six months of the coronavirus crisis, community
relations have been strained to the point that one concerned retiree in the
south-west told the Guardian: “It’s like the English civil war.” Now, with
control measures ramping up once more and fears that a second wave is here,
mediators who work to resolve disputes through the ceiling or over the garden
fence say they are seeing a surge in requests for help – and expect a lockdown
in winter to push tensions to a new high.
On January
11, the first coronavirus death was officially recorded in China. Eight months
after the identification of the disease that appeared in Wuhan in December
2019, the world has recorded over one million deaths. On a global scale, the
deadliest week was April 13 to 19 when more than 7,460 coronavirus deaths were
officially reported every day. By then the total number of deaths worldwide had
risen to nearly 170,000, or double the level reported on March 31. Since the
start of June, the average number of deaths per day has hovered around 5,000. In June, the epicentre of the pandemic
shifted to Latin America and the Caribbean. From July 15 to August 15, recorded
deaths in the region did not drop below an average of 2,500 per day.
Brazil became
the country with the most deaths in total after the United States (more than
140,000). Taking into account the size of their populations, Peru (975 deaths
per one million inhabitants) and Bolivia (671), are among the worst-affected
countries worldwide, alongside European countries like Belgium (861) and Spain
(668).
Amidst all the
melee, games are on – Test Cricket was first played in England between the home
team and visiting West Indies, then Pakistan and Australia and now IPL is on at
UAE. Meantime, Organisers for Tokyo 2020 Olympics have proposed more than 50
measures to make the games "fit for a post-corona world," including
ways to reduce staff and cut costs. The measures were proposed by the IOC
Coordination Commission at a virtual news conference Friday between the
International Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 officials.
Initial measures to be
taken in an effort to reduce the number of people at the games include hosting
pre-games meetings virtually, streamlining transportation services, adjusting
spectator activities at competition venues and limiting stakeholder personnel
attending the games. Additional measures include reducing invitations for the
opening and closing ceremonies, not holding team welcoming ceremonies at the
Olympic village, shortening the opening time of training venues and permitting
fewer officials access to official bus services. "The unique task of reorganizing an
Olympic Games has called for the Olympic Movement to be stronger together –
this milestone illustrates our collective commitment," he continued.
"The 'Tokyo Model' will not only deliver a games fit for a post-corona
world, it will become a blueprint that will benefit future organizing
committees for many years to come."
The Tokyo Games were
originally scheduled for July 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were
postponed until July 2021. Japan has more than 81,000 cases of the coronavirus,
with more than 24,850 cases in Tokyo. More than 1,540 people have died across
the country.
Now getting
back to Romanian elections at the start -
after handing Ion Aliman victory
in the election for their local mayor, residents of a small village in southern
Romania went to his grave to light candles for him. Aliman was reelected in a landslide for an
unprecedented third term as mayor of the village of Deveselu despite having
died from COVID-19 complications 10 days prior to the country’s municipal
elections. His death came too late to remove his name from Sunday’s ballot, but
the news of his passing spread fast through the village, home to just over
3,000 people. The popular incumbent would have celebrated his 57th birthday on
election day.
To
honor the man they admired, hundreds of Deveselu villagers went to the polling
stations Sunday and voted for Aliman anyway. After preliminary election results
showed late Sunday that Aliman had won 1,057 out of the 1,600 votes cast in
Deveselu, a large group of villagers visited his grave to light candles and pay
their respects. The election victory in
Deveselu was a bit of sweet news, but only a little comfort for the PSD as
partial preliminary results showed Monday that they had lost the most closely
watched contest — the one for the mayor of the capital, Bucharest.
Interesting !
28/09/2020
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