Former Constitutional Court president Augustin Zegrean said on Thursday that he was surprised by the constitutional watchdog's decision to order the recount of the presidential votes and wonders if the second round of the presidential election can still be held on December 8 if the recount is not completed next week.
"I'm baffled, I'm surprised by this decision. I think that all the judges of the Constitutional Court have at a given time sat on an electoral commission and they should know that the vote recounting cannot be done until tomorrow. It's obviously impossible and this is the only true thing I heard today - namely the AEP head saying that it cannot be done until tomorrow. Think about it, the county electoral offices have been dismantled. They have to summon the members, get them together. Plus, who pays them for these days?," Zegrean said on broadcaster Digi 24.
He believes that the constitutional judges took issue with the possibility that the votes that inadvertently went to Ludovic Orban (who pulled out of the race) were added to Elena Lasconi's account.
"I don't know if it's true or not, but we need evidence for that. If this happened, then the judges are right, because Orban's votes should have been voided and this falls under the scope of the legal provision on errors or changes to the candidates' order on the ballot. I don't know how many votes Orban had, but who knows where those votes went to?," Zegrean surmised.
In his opinion, if the recount of the votes is not completed by next week, we are headed towards the cancellation of the first round result.
"If the contenders haven't the necessary time to campaign, the one who loses will challenge the outcome at the Constitutional Court invoking the insufficient time for their defeat. (...) That's exactly what we needed now - a conflict between the Central Electoral Bureau and the Constitutional Court. (...) I don't know what will happen, I have no idea. It's an unprecedented situation and things could take a very bad and unfavorable turn. If the presidential election is delayed, I don't know where this will end, because the incumbent president's term expires and there will be no one in power to convene the new Parliament. Things would get really messy. That's the consequence of a combined election schedule. The calendar is too tight," said Augustin Zegrean.
The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) ordered on Thursday the Central Electoral Bureau to recount the valid and void votes cast in the first round of Romania's presidential election.
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