General elections were held in Romania on 28 November 2004, with a second round of the presidential elections on 12 December between Prime Minister Adrian Năstase of the ruling Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) and Bucharest Mayor Traian Băsescu of the opposition Justice and Truth Alliance (DA). Băsescu was elected President by a narrow majority of just 51.2%. Following 2003 amendments to the constitution which lengthened the presidential term to five years, these were the last joint elections to the presidency and Parliament in Romania's political history thus far. Campaign Parliamentary elections The main contenders were the left-wing alliance made up of the then incumbent Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSD) and the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), and, on the other hand, the center-right Justice and Truth Alliance (DA; ) comprising the conservative-liberal National Liberal Party (PNL) and the initially social-democratic Democratic Party (PD) which later adopted a center-right Christian democratic ideology. Other significant contenders were the Greater Romania Party (PRM) (right-wing nationalists), the ethnic Hungarian party Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), and the Union for Romanian Reconstruction (UPRR), a group of right-wing technocrats. Conduct The opposition alleged fraudulent use by the PSD of "supplementary lists", designed to help Romanians in transit to vote. Traditionally, Romanians voted with a cardboard identity card, which was stamped when they voted. Most Romanians now have laminated plastic IDs, to which a printed stamp is affixed when a person votes. However, the stamps can be easily removed. In spite of this, electoral fraud is nearly impossible to commit, as every citizen is assigned to one local voting station, the only location he/she can vote at. The opposition claimed that there were organized "electoral excursions" of PSD supporters who were bussed to various towns to vote several times. This was corroborated by several teams of journalists, who followed the buses. The government attacked the opposition by arguing that 'rumours of fraud' affect Romania's economy and its external credibility. In January 2005, the IMAS institute of statistics released an analysis of the voting results in the 16,824 precincts. In the top 1,000 precincts with the most votes on the supplementary lists, the PSD had 43% to the DA's 23%, while in the precincts with fewest votes on supplementary lists, the PSD had 30% to the DA's 34%. The same trend was true in the precincts with most void votes. Wayback Machine Presidential candidates