Local Officials and Party Switching

The Constitutional Court of Romania has motivated its decision of December last year to declare the Government Ordinance allowing local officials to switch parties as unconstitutional.

România Internațional, 21.01.2015, 13:25

In September 2014, only two months ahead of the presidential election, the left-of-center Government in Bucharest led by the Social-Democrat Victor Ponta, a presidential candidate at the time, gave a controversial emergency ordinance allowing locally elected officials to switch parties within 45 days of taking office, without losing their mandate. At the time, Victor Ponta claimed the ordinance was not only necessary, but compulsory, arguing that the latest developments in politics have heavily weighed down on the local administration. According to the Prime Minister, the deadlock was caused by the Liberal Party choosing to withdraw from the Social-Liberal Union, the center-left alliance that had won the legislative elections of 2012 by a landslide majority. To no one’s surprise, the Social-Democratic Party became the main beneficiary of the ordinance, as hundreds of local officials enrolled in the party.

The Opposition, on the other hand, saw in it a ruse Ponta was using to expand its sphere of influence at local level, in the run-up to the presidential elections of November, particularly in key counties where the opposition had the majority vote. In December however, the Constitutional Court decided that the ordinance sanctioning party switching goes against the Constitution. The Court has recently motivated its decision, saying that the forging and break-up of political alliances is a natural democratic process. Therefore this cannot justify measures that directly and brutally affect the political structure of public administration and alter voters’ choice.

The Court claims that Parliament cannot reverse the unconstitutional character of an ordinance by adopting it, and must therefore vote against it under the law. The debate has now moved on to ascertain the status of those officials who actually switched parties while the ordinance was effective, lured by the promise of more funds from the state budget. The Opposition is pressing on, challenging the mandates of hundreds of officials in the local administration. If their endeavor should prove successful, nationwide snap elections will follow, marking a premiere in Romania.