President Basescu discusses the majority vote system with all parliamentary parties’ leaders (Mar 6, 2007)

Mar 6, 2007 (Romania Report)

Romania’s President Traian Basescu invited the main political parties’ representatives for talks on Tuesday and Wednesday regarding the elections for the European Parliament due to take place in Romania as initially scheduled for May 13.

Mr. Basescu’s opponents think that the Euro-parliamentary polls’ date is linked to President’s plans to organize a referendum on the opportunity to establish the majority vote system in Romanian general elections, a move aimed at reforming the political environment in the country.

According to daily ‘Gandul’, the present circumstances are rather difficult to solve for Basescu’s rival, Liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who – in case the President opts to postpone the referendum – will be forced to seek support from the Social Democrats in opposition, thus affecting his stand in the future elections.

Last Friday, President Basescu sent a letter to all parliamentary parties and asked them to agree upon the May 13 polls. Complying with the already scheduled Euro-parliamentary elections date “must become the test of our political responsibility, as a new EU member state,” Mr. Basescu’s letter reads.

PM Tariceanu, in his turn, asked both President Basescu and the Social-Democrats in opposition to give up their referenda initiatives. In case his request is not agreed upon, PM Tariceanu said he will postpone the Euro-parliamentary polls.

In February, the Social-Democrat MPs started an impeachment procedure against Mr. Basescu – procedure that would eventually result into a referendum aimed to sack the country’s President. To date, a parliamentary hearing commission chaired by anti-Basescu Conservative leader Dan Voiculescu is gathering proofs in favour of the planned impeachment.

Today, President Traian Basescu met with representatives of the Social Democrat Party, the Democrat Party, and the Hungarians’ Union.

The Social-Democrats proposed an elections system that combines the French-style two-round majority vote (TRS) for one of the chambers with the “preferential” vote (ordinal ballots) on party lists, for the other parliamentary chamber. President Basescu seemed to agree upon such a system and said that in case Parliament urgently passes a new general elections bill he would give up his referendum initiative on the issue.

Also today, Mr. Basescu attended the annual report meeting of the General Prosecutor’s Office. The President reiterated the idea that the insufficient human resources in place are preventing a better performance in dealing with court cases – mostly those which are related to top level corruption.



Romania Report