Radio România Internațional

Tag: postal voting

  • Talks on Diaspora Voting

    Talks on Diaspora Voting

    One of the political priorities announced by Romaniaa President Klaus Iohannis, shortly after taking over the office, in December last year, was the adoption of the new election laws, among which the one on postal voting. The latter was persistently requested especially by the Romanians living abroad, following the resounding scandal marring Novembers presidential election, when thousands of people could not vote because of the poor organization of the ballots.



    The Social Democratic Party, the main party in the ruling coalition, was blamed for the way in which the two rounds of election were organized, with thousands of Romanians in the Diaspora queuing for hours to cast their votes. The issue concerning the election laws, the one on postal voting in particular, was again tackled in April, when the head of state and the parliamentary parties agreed that the entire legislative package should be adopted by the end of the current parliamentary session.



    After one month exactly, President Iohannis talked to those who represent the Diaspora in Parliament. He said he was not confident that the deadline would be observed, especially with regard to the postal voting law. However, he once again stressed the need for these laws to be passed as soon as possible, so that Romanians living abroad be able to cast their votes under the best possible conditions.



    He said the new laws could be applied starting with the 2016 legislative elections only if the law came into force by November. The president called on his interlocutors to get more vocal in the dialogue with the representative of political parties, in order to find a feasible and simple solution, that would entail minimum costs for the Romanian voters outside the countrys borders. The MPs hope that the head of state will “put pressure on parties for them to support postal voting. They have stressed that more MPs to represent Diaspora in the Romanian Parliament are needed, as well as more polling stations and more consular offices abroad.



    Also on Thursday, the liberal opposition, too, met with 4 MPs representing the Diaspora. The co-president of the National Liberal Party, Alina Gorghiu, called for the support of the other parliamentary parties for the postal voting law to be passed by the end of the current Parliament session. We recall that during Aprils consultations between the president and representatives of the parliamentary parties, the Social – Democrats said they would like the elections abroad to be managed by the Permanent Election Authority and the Romanians residing abroad to be able to register on election lists 6 months prior to the election proper.

  • The Week in Review 7-13 December

    The Week in Review 7-13 December

    Romania’s State Budget for 2015


    The Government of Romania has finalised the draft state budget for 2015. It was designed on the basis of a 1.8% budget deficit, a macroeconomic indicator negotiated with the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the World Bank, which early this week have completed a new assessment mission in Bucharest.



    The Government also relies on a 2.2% inflation rate and a 2.5% economic growth rate. Under next year’s budget, the ministries of labour, finances, agriculture, European funds, transport and economy will have more money than in 2014. Conversely, the budgets of the healthcare, culture, administration and the interior ministry have been lowered. Prime Minister Victor Ponta explains:



    “First of all, there will not be, and the budget bill does not include, any additional taxes or charges in 2015. Obviously the flat 16% tax remains in force. The charge on special construction projects will be lowered from 1.5% to 1% and this has been taken into account in calculating the state budget. It was a fundamental objective. All the current measures targeting economic development or social justice are covered by the draft budget.”



    The 2015 budget also provides for increasing the national minimum wages in two stages. As of January the 1st, minimum wages will be 220 euros, to be further increased to 235 euros on July the 1st. Other social protection measures include a 5% increase of pension benefits and higher allowances for people with disabilities. A priority for next year is to encourage investments. Here is the minister delegate for budget, Darius Valcov:



    “We chose to cut down those budgetary allocations that were excessive and to focus on investments. The budget for investment projects rose from 34 to 44 billion lei, that is by 23%, and the budget law will include a list of investment priorities. As far as the investments are concerned, I don’t believe there is any case of budget reduction.”



    Another goal of the Romanian Government is to reduce the number of the unemployed by 20 thousand, to 465,000 people.



    Romanian MPs reject postal voting bill


    “The Romanian Parliament is a building haunted by Communists whose only care is to punish the Romanian citizens living abroad”. This is how MP Eugen Tomac harshly criticized the vote of the Chamber of Deputies, which on Tuesday rejected an older draft law on the introduction of postal voting for the parliamentary, presidential and European Parliament elections for the Romanians who live or reside abroad. The draft law had been rejected in February by the Senate as well.



    The serious problems reported in the diaspora at the recent presidential election have once again pointed to the need to amend the election law. The two chambers of Romania’s Parliament have jointly decided that by June 30th 2015 a special parliamentary commission is to draft proposals to this end.



    Several Romanians, of the thousands who queued for hours to cast their vote and failed to do so because of the flawed organisation of the voting process abroad this November, have filed criminal complaints. Dealt with by the General Prosecutor’s Office in a first stage, the case has been taken over by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, which received, on Monday, from the Standing Electoral Authority, the documents it had requested for verification.



    Is party switching unconstitutional?


    Romania’s Constitutional Court will discuss on Wednesday, December 17th, a notification filed by the Liberal and Liberal Democrats MPs, according to which the law approving an emergency government ordinance on local elected officials switching parties comes against the Constitution.



    Endorsed by the Chamber of Deputies, and also by the Senate this week, the law allows local elected officials to move from one party to another without losing their public office. The Opposition criticises the practice of party switching as one of the most damaging in Romanian politics. The leader of the National Liberal Party group in the Senate, Puiu Hasoti:



    “After party switching altered voting majorities at local, county and national level, now this law further encourages it, which is unacceptable”.



    The effects of winter flooding


    Rivers and rivulets in the counties of Olt, Dolj, Teleorman, Mehedinti, Dambovita, Giurgiu and Ilfov have this week been under code red, orange and yellow alerts for flooding. Heavy rainfalls have affected 140 villages in the south of Romania, tens of roads and hundreds of hectares of farming land. Scores of people have been evacuated and landslides have been reported in several areas. The most affected of all counties is Teleorman in the south of Romania, where task forces have been mobilized to help the local authorities.



    All Romanian football teams have been eliminated from the Europa League


    Romania’s football champions Steaua Bucharest and vice-champions Astra from Giurgiu, in the south, ended their Europa League run after being defeated on Thursday. In their last Group J match, Steaua Bucharest lost to Ukraine’s Dinamo Kiev 0-2, and with only 7 points ranked 3rd in the standings. Astra Giurgiu lost 1-5 in an away match to FC Red Bull Salzburg from Austria, and ended on last position with only 4 points.


  • The Voting System in the Limelight

    The Voting System in the Limelight

    The images of thousands of people queuing up in front of polling stations abroad in order to cast their votes in the early November’s first round of the presidential ballot in Romania made the headlines for weeks on end in the Romanian media. Despite the repeated warnings coming from the Diaspora, the situation remained unchanged two weeks later in the second ballot.



    The Romanian officials in charge of organizing the ballot took measures to improve the voting process, measures which nevertheless turned out to be ineffective. Two Foreign Ministers resigned against the backdrop of the ensuing crisis, while the Social-Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta said he had paid a political price by losing the elections to his Christian-Liberal opponent Klaus Iohannis. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.



    On November 18, the General Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal investigation into alleged cases of abuse of office, actionable negligence, and knowingly interfering with the voting process. The allegations are founded on complaints filed by Romanians in the Diaspora who could not cast their votes, despite waiting for hours on end in line. Subsequently, the case was referred to and taken over by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, since the aforementioned offences are actionable under the law on preventing, identifying and punishing acts of corruption.



    Under the Romanian Criminal Code, any restriction of the right to elect or be elected is punishable by 6 months to three years in prison. One of the main points in the investigation is the question of whether the authorities could have opened additional polling centers abroad and whether the legal framework allowed them to do so. Beyond the judicial technicalities involved, the irregularities reported in the second ballot have rekindled the debate on the voting system, with Romanians abroad voicing the need for coming up with enhanced alternatives. Radu Carp is a professor at the School of Political Sciences with the University of Bucharest.



    Radu Carp: “There have been two draft laws on postal voting. The first was initiated by the Liberal-Democratic Party in 2011. It was adopted by the Senate and sent to the Chamber of Deputies, where it has been sitting on the table for nearly 2 years. It was rejected in March 2013 by the current Social-Democratic Government. The second bill was initiated by four MPs, and the Senate dismissed it on February 25, 2014”.



    Another draft law on postal voting by the Romanian voters living or residing aboard has been rejected by the Romanian MPs this very week.



    So far there has been no debate about postal voting, about its advantages or disadvantages. Accordingly, no piece of legislation can be adopted, MEP Victor Bostinaru told us. On the other hand, several EU Member States have not introduced or oppose postal voting. There are however some 4 models at EU level which Romania should look at before making a decision. Victor Bostinaru:



    Victor Bostinaru: “One model is the compulsory vote for all citizens. Just imagine the entire Greek Diaspora having to come back home in order to vote. Greek citizens can only cast their votes in Greece. The issue with this model is that it is very restrictive. The second model is to have lists on which people residing in other countries can sign up. They have to sign up on these lists approximately six months before an election in order to be able to vote. By this they express their intention to vote, stipulate their current address and the polling station where they want to vote”.



    Only those citizens who have put their names on this list will be able to cast their votes on the election day. A third solution would be e-voting, Victor Bostinaru also told us.



    Victor Bostinaru: “E-voting is an easy, less costly solution, but it should equally reflect the political consensus of all factions in the Romanian Parliament to prevent any future disputes and to guarantee that all parties agree to the technical solutions to prevent fraud. Finally, there’s also the postal voting alternative, which is currently being used in Italy for instance. In that case, however, there was a substantial debate on this matter and all political parties agree, to a certain extent, that this is the most acceptable solution”.



    Romania must urgently come up with a reasonable, if not ideal, solution, because setting up polling stations for the country’s 3 million citizens living abroad is virtually impossible, Prime Minister Victor Ponta has said.

  • New Legislative Provisions

    New Legislative Provisions

    Party switching, a frequent occurrence in Romanian political life, is, just like corruption, one of the practices that question the integrity of politicians. Loyalty to a specific political doctrine, be it right-wing, left-wing, center or closer to the extremes, is seen as a proof of politicians’ reliability. Ever since the early ‘90s, when Romania was trying to adjust to democratic practices, we’ve seen countless examples of politicians in both local and central administration, who have moved from one side to the other of the political spectrum.



    This practice is quite common in the Parliament of Romania, and has often contributed to the rise and fall of successive governments. The same Parliament has recently passed a controversial government emergency ordinance allowing local elected officials to switch from one party to another without losing their seats. During the debates on the bill in the Senate, the decision-making body in this case, Ilie Sarbu, the floor leader of the Social Democratic Party, the main member of the ruling coalition in Romania, pleaded for the respective act:



    “We had different arguments to support the bill. There was this Social Liberal Union, people voted for it, and then they were confused because one party in this alliance walked away.”



    The Social Liberal Union was the alliance that won the legislative elections of 2012, but with the withdrawal of the National Liberal Party, this political project was buried. In turn, the National Liberal Party, in Opposition today, after having merged with the Liberal Democrats, harshly criticized the bill, which it will take to the Constitutional Court as well. Here is the Liberal floor leader Puiu Hasoti


    :


    “This encourages the most damaging practice in Romanian politics at local, county and national level. Political party switching has altered voting majorities at local, county and national levels, and this bill further encourages it, which is unacceptable.”



    Also on Tuesday, the Chamber of Deputies turned down a bill allowing the Romanian citizens living abroad to vote by post. The administration committee and the judicial committee recommended that the Chamber should not pass the bill, on grounds that its current text has flaws as regards ensuring voting security. Observers find it at least strange that Parliament was unable to adopt a piece of legislation on postal voting, which is generally viewed as the best means to prevent crowding in polling stations abroad, as it happened in last month’s presidential elections.