UPDATE/ USR's Barana says three quarters of party members don't believe he should resign

Chairman of the Save Romania Party (USR) Dan Barna has announced on Wednesday that three quarters of the party members believe that he should remain at the helm of this political party.

"We have the result of members' consultations regarding my position as leader of the party. It was a question that I asked somehow following the result of the elections, where I somehow had greater expectations than the result which I obtained and then, as the USR had solved these kind of situations by consulting the members, these time too, we opted for this variant. The questions which I asked is ' Do you believe that Dan Barna should resign from the USR leadership?.' Our colleagues' decision (...) is to continue on this position. 75 percent - basically three quarters of the party - believed that I shouldn't resign. The concrete results are 74.47 percent responded 'no' to the question and 24 percent responded 'yes'. Basically, 7,189 members believe that we should continue," Barna told a press conference.

He added that the USR members' decision is "clear, "unmistakable" and delivers this message, after the experience in the presidential elections and the three years experience, the party should continue in the local elections and for "the honest and competent governance which the USR PLUS Alliance has constantly talked about."

The USR members voted online, as of Friday, for five days, on whether or not Dan Barna should remain at the helm of the party. 9,654 members voted electronically during the five days of internal consultations, according to a USR release. The consultation has been made at the request of the USR leader, after the result of the presidential elections, where he obtained 15 percent of the votes, ranking 3rd.