The Constitutional Court rejected, as unfounded, the notification by USR deputies and the Right Force regarding the law to advance the presidential elections.
„In essence, the Court ruled that the criticized law reshapes the time interval for setting the election date, which does not question a fundamental element of electoral law,” argued the CCR judges.
The two parties accused that the project was adopted by PSD, PNL, and UDMR, „flagrantly violating any democratic principles.”
„The Venice Commission noted that there are three categories of election date determination systems [Report on the Determination of the Date of Elections, adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections at its 22nd meeting (Venice, October 18, 2007) and by the Venice Commission at its 72nd plenary session (Venice, October 19-20, 2007)], Romania belonging to the second system mentioned [the election date is set by an authority, within a fairly strict time frame determined by the Constitution or electoral law].”
„The criticized law does not change the existing system for setting the election date but makes a temporal modification within the system chosen by the Romanian legislator since 2004.”
„The placement of this date towards the end of the current term fits within the coordinates of constitutional democracy to ensure the natural succession of mandates without affecting the plenary nature of the current mandates.”
„Between the announcement date of the elections and the election date, there is a reasonable time gap to allow all interested political actors to prepare for the electoral competition,” according to the CCR press release.
Additionally, the cited source adds:
„The Venice Commission [Code of Good Practices in Electoral Matters. Guidelines and Explanatory Report, adopted by the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) at its 52nd plenary session (Venice, October 18-19, 2002) and Interpretative Declaration on the Stability of Electoral Law, adopted by the Council for Democratic Elections at its 15th meeting (Venice, December 15, 2005) and by the Venice Commission at its 65th plenary session (Venice, December 16-17, 2005)] established that the actual electoral system, the composition of electoral commissions, and the establishment of electoral constituencies are fundamental elements of electoral law and cannot be modified less than 1 year before the election date.”
„The change made, extending the temporal interval in which elections can take place, does not represent a reform of electoral legislation and does not target a fundamental or substantial element of the electoral system.”
„Therefore, the Court found that the criticized law meets the constitutional requirements invoked,” the CCR further specifies.
On March 5, the Chamber of Deputies adopted, as the decision-making body, UDMR’s draft law amending the date of the Romanian President’s elections. The project amends art. 5 of Law no. 370/2004, so that the presidential elections are organized up to three months before the end of the term of the President of Romania.
PSD President Marcel Ciolacu announced that the presidential elections will take place on September 15 and 29, and on December 8, the general elections will be held. Klaus Iohannis’s mandate ends on December 21.