Acting PM Orban says Parliament may amend early election ordinance

Acting Prime Minister Ludovic Orban of the National Liberal Party (PNL) said on Monday that Parliament could amend the government emergency ordinance regarding early elections and explained that the provision by which the voter can exercise his or her right to vote in another electoral district than the one allowed by domicile was introduced to increase the voter turnout.

"In the electoral legislation regarding the parliamentary elections the instance of early elections was not provided for. (...) Along with the ordinance, we have done some things which, in my opinion, are normal and natural and I doubt that any political party can have another opinion than the opinion we have expressed, namely to extend to the general election the voting conditions that existed for the overseas Romanian voters at the presidential election. (...) We have increased the representation of the overseas Romanians in the Romanian Parliament, doubling the number of MPs who are elected abroad," said Orban after a meeting of the PNL Executive Bureau.

The PNL national leader mentioned that there is a discussion regarding the provision that allowed the exercise of the right to vote and in a constituency other than the one where the voter has a domicile.

"We did this to increase voter turnout, to provide an additional guarantee that the right to vote is exercised. There are very clear situations - students who are not in the county, are at a faculty in another county and may have classes and their right to vote is restricted if they are allowed to vote only in the county where their domicile is," said Orban.

He added that Parliament can amend this piece of legislation.

According to him, the votes will be gathered at a national level and the representation of the parties is not affected.

He indicated that under the emergency ordinance, the political parties that have at least 10 MP or seven senators' seats have the right to representation at the polling stations.