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| What will Romania’s Parliament look like? |
| (2011-11-15) |
| Last updated: 2011-11-16 13:04 EET |
The main partners of the ruling coalition in Romania, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, have reached a compromise over most of the issues they were disagreeing on. They have agreed to hold joint local and legislative elections next year, to reduce the number of MPs and introduce a new voting system. That means that the local elections, scheduled for the summer, will be postponed until November.
The number of MPs will be reduced from 471 to 389, namely 300 deputies and 89 senators. The Liberal Democrats have eventually accepted the version suggested by the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, the UDMR, according to which two thirds of the MPs will be elected by direct vote while one third on lists. The vote in the Senate will be uninominal.
The vice-president of the Liberal Democratic Party, Sever Voinescu, explains: “Representation in Parliament will be as follows: two thirds of the number of deputies will be elected from colleges and one third on a national list. As regards senators, given that counties will be practically divided into two, there will be candidates elected by uninominal vote.”
The Liberal Democratic Party has given up the idea of a one-chamber parliament because of the UDMR’ reticence. The Social Liberal opposition categorically rejects the idea of holding joint local and legislative elections. The ruling coalition claims that that move would save 30 million Euros but their argument has been rejected as fragile since democracy costs a lot even in times of crisis.
The Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party claim that joint elections risk confusing the voters because they will have to put the stamp on 6 ballots- for deputy, senator, mayor, chairman of county council and two lists of local and county councilors. Furthermore, the likelihood of fraud is even higher, warns the opposition, which points to the pressure local officials are about to put on voters. The Social Liberal Union agrees however to reducing the number of MPs to 300, an option Romanians expressed in a referendum.
Here is the leader of the Liberal Party, Crin Antonescu: “We agree to reducing the number of MPs, actually we want a significant reduction in line with the constitutional principle of proportionality, in the sense that each MP should have behind an equal number of voters”.
As regards the cut down on the number of MPs, the opposition has found the unexpected support of president Traian Basescu, who has always advocated the significant reduction of the number of MPs in Romania’s Parliament.
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2025-04-03
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