Presidential elections 2025, tour 2. How did the last place in the country to vote the county considered one of the most powerful electoral basins

Vaslui is the county in Romania with the weakest vote presence, below 22%, compared to the national average of 31.26% in presidential elections 2025, tour 2. in the first round, the situation was similar. In fact, in recent years, Vaslui County is facing a major absenteeism in elections. If in the 90s the presence at the vote was over 80%, in the last elections it reduced by almost 50%. Behind these figures are two realities: the departure of the locals and the impressive number of Moldovan citizens who have established their domicile in Vaslui, but who are left in the country.

• Vasluiul is the county that has registered the highest collapse of birth over the last 30 years, the number of births by decreasing by 65%, according to the National Institute of Statistics, while the number of deaths has increased constantly annually.

• At the beginning of 2025, Vaslui County had a population of 503,464, of which 59,754 employees and 80.103 pensioners, according to the data communicated by the Vaslui County Directorate.

Of the total of the 426,400 Vaslui registered on the permanent electoral lists, until 14.00 only 21.81% (including those on the additional lists) had voted.

At the first round of the presidential elections on May 4, according to the data of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), in Vaslui county there were 426,330 persons with voting rights registered on the permanent lists. 139,491 Vaslui were present at the ballot box. With a percentage of 32.72% Vaslui County registered on May 4 the weakest voting presence from 1990 until now, according to centralized data by HotNews.ro from the Permanent Electoral Authority. The situation comes to confirm the phenomenon of absenteeism that the county faces in all the categories of elections in recent years.

While the social networks are flooded with jokes about Vaslui who “stand in the dungeons and do not vote”, the authorities' statistics come to clarify how to get to this situation.

The presence of Vaslui began to decrease massively since 2007, with Romania's accession to the European Union. At the same time, starting with the same period, Vaslui County has begun to register an artificial increase in the number of inhabitants, through the Moldovan citizens who have established their domicile here. The phenomenon of Moldovan citizens who established their fictional domicile in Vaslui county, to access the European space, was in the attention of the judicial authorities several times, but no criminal investigation has been completed with referrals.

According to centralized data by the authorities, approximately 140,000 Moldovan citizens are registered in Vaslui. Most of them are found in the county residence, where the population almost doubled in the last ten years, from 70,000 inhabitants to 138,000. In the area, the blocks in which thousands of Moldovans in one apartment are registered are notorious. Until two years ago, there was no regulations on taking space. From 2023, the legislation has changed, a limit of 10 persons for a single building being established.

“They will never come to vote here, it is clear that the percentage will be smaller, but look at the absolute figures that, if we drop the respective number, we approach 50% vote presence. It is not a problem that we vote less, it is a problem for others that I do not understand, but in time, I believe that in four years, I will start to make it. In Vaslui, so that these things will be brushed., explains the deputy Adrian Solomon, after last year's parliamentary elections.

The real population of the county is uncertain, considering the large number of Vaslui who have gone to work abroad in the last 15 years. The last reports indicated a number of 100,000 Vaslui left to work abroad. If this number is added to the 140,000 Moldovan citizens, with a domicile established in this county, it results in a real population much smaller than it is found in the official statistics.

Dramatic decrease in birth

Vaslui County also faces the decrease of birth. According to data the National Institute of Statistics, Vasluiul is the county that registered the largest collapse of birth across the country.

If in 1990 8,377 children were born in Vaslui county, in 2023 (the last reporting of the statistics) were registered only 3,246 births. At deaths, the phenomenon is the opposite, their number constantly increasing by over 1,300 in the same period. These data, say statisticians consulted by HotNews, confirms that the population found in official statistics does not coincide with the reality of the facts.

All these aspects have majorly influenced the figures regarding the presence of Vaslui in the ballot box. HotNews.ro has centralized all the data on the presence of the Vaslui from the Presidential Elections from 1990 to the present. The figures, collected from the platform of the Permanent Electoral Authority, concern the presence at the ballot box in the second round of the presidentials after the 1989 Revolution.

Presidential elections of 1990

During the first free elections in Romania, held in a single tour, 269,329 Vaslui were present at the ballot box. 95.63% of them voted with Ion Iliescu, in the confrontation with Radu Câmpeanu and Ion Rațiu.

At national level, 14,826,616 Romanians appeared at the ballot box out of the total of 17,200.722.

Presidential elections 1992: Ion Iliescu – Emil Constantinescu

235,239 Vaslui (74.4%) voted, at national level the presence was 73.23%.

Presidential elections 1996: Emil Constantinescu-ion Iliescu

Voted 247,537 Vaslui (69.92%), the national average being 75.9%.

Presidential elections 2000: Ion Iliescu-Corneliu Vadim Tudor

221,735 Vaslui voters voted (61.47% (221,735), above the national average that was 57.5%

2004 presidential elections: Traian Basescu-Adrian Nastase

It is the last presidential election when Vaslui County exceeds the threshold of 200,000 voters. With 214,225 voters at ballot (57.15%), the county exceeded the national average that was 55.21%

Presidential elections 2009: Traian Basescu- Mircea Geoana

In the first presidential poll after Romania's accession to the EU, the presence at the ballot box in Vaslui county decreased to188,209 voters (51.28%), with seven percent below the national average that was 58.02%

Presidential elections 2014: Klaus Iohannis – Victor Ponta

199.273 Vaslui (53.03%) were present at the ballot box, the national average being 64.11%.

Presidential elections 2019: Klaus Iohannis- Viorica Dancila

The presence at the ballot boxes of the Vaslui registers the highest decrease in the presence in the ballot box: 156,858 voters- 37.54%, the national average being- 55.07%.

2024 presidential elections, first round

Voted 144,681 Vasluieni- 33.92%, the national average being 52.56%

2025 presidential elections, first round

They voted 139,491 Vasluieni- 32.72%, the national average being 53, 21%.