Talks about Voting Procedures
The irregularities reported in the second round of the presidential election had Romanian Parliament resume talks on the election law.
Bogdan Matei, 20.11.2014, 14:14
The latest estimate of the number of Romanian citizens in the Diaspora reveals that some 3.2 million Romanians live abroad. Whether residing in neighboring countries or in large European or North-American cities, these people must have the same rights as their fellow countrymen at home, including the right to elect their president and representatives in Parliament. Still, authorities have time and again failed to take the necessary measures to allow them to exercise this fundamental right. Some 100,000 Romanians on average took to polling stations at the previous elections of May 25th. This should have prompted the authorities to make additional polling stations available, but the outcome was a flop. Over 160,000 people voted in the first round on November 2, and some 380,000 in the second ballot on November 16. In both cases, voters queued up for hours on end, enduring the freezing rain and pilling up the frustration, only to see the doors close before being able to cast their votes.
With every election round, Foreign Ministers tendered their resignation. First was Titus Corlatean, followed by Teodor Melescanu. Both blame it on the current election law. Years of debates have gone by, with MPs failing to implement alternatives, such as the electronic vote or the absentee vote. Eugen Tomac, a member of the People’s Movement Party, says he drafted an election law almost a year ago, which is still pending on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies:
“I waited for six hours on Sunday in Chisinau to be able to cast my vote. A year ago I filed a legislative initiative on the introduction of the absentee vote, a bill drafted with the participation of numerous institutions: the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Permanent Election Authority. Sunday’s vote was a humiliation for the millions of Romanians who live abroad”.
In turn, Chamber of Deputies Speaker Social-Democrat Valeriu Zgonea says the document needs revising and should be discussed by Parliament’s committees:
“It’s not a fully-fledged draft law, it fails to comply with certain election technicalities. It makes no mention of who is to be held accountable, we don’t know the financial impact, as per the requirements of the Constitutional Court, and it fails to ensure the security of the vote”.
Valeriu Zgonea has also stated that Parliament’s special committee in charge with drafting the law on the election of deputies and senators would discuss the aforementioned bill.
