A piece of information has been circulating for several days that the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), the key political supporters of Romania's President Traian Basescu, have instructed their branches to secure votes for Basescu's daughter, Elena Basescu, who runs as an independent candidate in European Parliament elections on Sunday. A HotNews.ro incognito investigation among several PD-L branches across the country shows that the party branches have prepared lists of people who would vote for Elena, so that her entry in the EP be secured.

Elena Basescu was a member of the PD-L until she opted to leave the party so that she runs as an independent in EP elections on June 7.

HotNews.ro published on May 26 the information that PD-L branch leaders had received an order to secure ten votes per voting section, in average, for Elena Basescu. Officially, party representatives have denied the existence of such an internal order. Romanian media later quoted an SMS allegedly sent by a PD-L member of the Romanian parliament, which instructed party members to join a training on how voting for Elena Basescu should develop. The MP denied he was the one to send the SMS.

But HotNews.ro has contacted eight PD-L branches across the country, with a journalist pretending to be a representative of the PD-L central board rapporteur inspecting how the preparations for the vote were going.

Of eight contacted branches, five confirmed they have prepared lists of voters for Elena Basescu. Some of them even provided the names and phone numbers of militants who would sacrifice their votes in favour of the President's daughter on Sunday.

That comes as the latest opinion poll showed PD-L and their governing coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) shoulder to shoulder in voters' preferences.

A PD-L branch representative in t