Word: iliescu
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Much of the bitterness of the campaign stems from questions surrounding the legitimacy of the Salvation Front government and its right to contest the elections. Formed in the aftermath of the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu last December, the Front is dominated by former Communists. These include Ion Iliescu, the country's interim leader and front runner in the presidential race, who was Ceausescu's heir apparent in 1970 before falling out with the dictator...
...where the revolution that led to Ceausescu's ouster and execution began on Dec. 17, the Front's opponents called for a ban on former Communists contesting elections for ten years. Protests against the Front have been staged in other cities, including Bucharest, where thousands gather daily to denounce Iliescu and other former Communists...
...Bucharest sit-in has blocked traffic in one of the capital's main thoroughfares and led Iliescu to denounce the protesters as "vagabonds," a description for which he later apologized. Throughout the country, protesters took to wearing lapel badges inscribed I AM A VAGABOND and renewed their demands for Iliescu to step aside...
...refused to meet any of those demands. Backed by opinion polls that show both the Front and himself ahead in the parliamentary and presidential elections, Iliescu has gone on the stump, drawing large crowds in provincial cities. "Iliescu, Iliescu," they chant when he raises his arms triumphantly and smiles. He offers little in the way of concrete proposals, talking vaguely of capitalism with a human face and of his commitment to pluralism...
...demonstrators believe the Front holds an unfair advantage in parliamentary elections slated for May 20. Some charge that the Front may attempt to rig the balloting. Critics say almost 90% of the group's members are former Communists. Iliescu's vow that a "return to the past is impossible" has failed to reassure his detractors. Says Sergiu Cunescu, chairman of the center-right Social Democratic Party: "People live in fear...