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The Ombudsperson has filed a constitutionality challenged with the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) on Friday regarding the provisions of the Government Emergency Ordinance (OUG) No.26/2020 that modifies the legislation on parliamentary elections and some measures for the organisation of early parliamentary elections.
"The Ombudsperson draws attention, among others, that the manner of organising elections for Romania's Parliament cannot be legislated through emergency ordinances, being against the entire constitutional architecture (the will of the Constituent) as the way to elect the 'supreme representative body of the Romanian people' be given by the Government through delegation. It is important to note that, in the electoral area, the Government's authority is that of organising the elections and the normative regulation of the measures required in this regard, and not to effectively establish the national electoral system, which represents a sovereign right of Parliament. Moreover, OUG No.26/2020 is unconstitutional because its provisions operate amendments regarding the electoral rights, for which the Constitution expressly prohibits legislative changes through emergency ordinance. Thus, it is necessary that the amendments brought to the electoral system regulation be made through organic law adopted within parliamentary debates," the quoted source mentions.
The Ombudsperson underscores that the amendment of the parliamentary elections legislation through emergency ordinance occurs approximately 10 months before the mandate of the new Parliament and less than 9-10 months before the organisation of the next parliamentary elections to term.
"Consequently, the Ombudsperson has noticed that the Government doesn't observe the Code of Good Practices in Electoral Matters adopted by the Venice Commission, which recommends, among other things, the amendment of the electoral systems by at least one year before the elections. On the other hand, the ordinance text shows the possibility of organising early parliamentary elections on the same date as the general local elections, exceptionally, in 2020, the Ombudsperson mentions that the laws should regulated for the future all the possible situations which might arise without being limited to just one of them. And, the provision of the abovementioned normative act refers only to the situation of 2020, and doesn't regulate the possibility of its enforcement for other possible future situations, after 2020," the Ombudsperson also said.
Moreover, the quoted source argues that there are provisions included in the normative act which affect the right to vote and the right to be elected.
AGERPRES
