For weeks, Prime Minister Victor Ponta's government has tried to have suspended President Traian Basescu removed from office, violating laws and rulings by the Constitutional Court as a means to an end. The government's efforts have been blasted as a "revolution of thieves" by Romania's Hotnews website. Forgery of the country's eligible voters and election fraud have meanwhile been added to the list of grievances.

On August 10, prosecutors at Romania's Supreme Court made public transcripts of intercepted phone calls made by ministers and senior officials.

The calls showed Ponta's government was planning to falsify electoral lists on a large scale: tens-of-thousands of people were to be declared dead and expatriate Romanians were to be taken off the lists. The Romanian judiciary has launched a probe into the alleged manipulation of voter rolls.