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| THE UNINOMINAL VOTE – A BONE OF CONTENTION (25.10.2007) |
| (2007-10-25) |
| Last updated: 2007-10-26 14:49 EET |
In Bucharest, the ongoing battle between the Presidency and the Government continues with a new episode. After President Traian Basescu was forced to call a referendum on November the 25th on account of the MP’s protracted tactics in passing the law on the introduction of the uninominal voting system, Liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu has announced that on Monday the Government will assume responsibility for this draft law. However, the Government’s variant of this draft law differs from that supported by the President and the Democratic Party, a pro-presidential party in opposition.
The draft law supported by the ruling Liberals and Union of Ethnic Hungarians is based on the mixed uninominal voting system, used by a number of European states, which provides that half the seats in Parliament be occupied by the winning candidates in the single member constituency uninominal vote, while the other half should be distributed according to the nationwide votes polled by each political party. The variant backed by President Basescu is based on the two-round majority uninominal voting system, used for the election of mayors and similar to the American voting system. Watching the struggle between the two “Palaces”, the media notes that Basescu and Tariceanu have divided the country into two “BALLOT BOXES”. Political analyst Adrian Ursu:
“We wanted our politicians to keep their pledges and one day they kept them for too long and all at the same time. This is the paradox we’ve found ourselves at the moment, whereby two political projects overlap and collide. In fairness, this collision can only result in a fudge, as everyone in Romania knows that this is always the outcome when several projects are in progress or under discussion.”
Kept on his toes by Basescu’s decision to call a referendum, Tariceanu interestingly sped up the decision to assume governmental responsibility, in turn accusing Parliament that it had postponed the discussion of the uninominal voting system for too long. Tariceanu’s project will probably be accepted by the majority of MPs, even if the Social-Democrats, the largest opposition party, have been considering accepting President Basescu’s version. However, the Social Democrats have their own fears, concerning whether or not the November referendum would be able to attract half of the electorate (about 9 million people) to the polls, the figure required for it to be considered valid. The question political analysts in Romania have been asking is whether Parliament will succeed in passing the government’s project by November 25. Will Traian Basescu give up on consulting the citizens? It doesn’t look likely, as the president will not easily let go of his version of the uninominal voting system. Moreover, the political stakes are too high, according to political analyst Ioan Stanomir.
“I believe the referendum will be held at all cost, as its objective is twofold: firstly, it has a political objective – the head of state’s engagement in such a sensitive issue – and secondly, public opinion will be targeted with respect to a very specific issue: whether or not people think there should be two ballots for parliamentary elections. If citizens agree with this proposal, it means that most people in the country are at odds with Parliament and then, indeed, we may have a pretty complicated constitutional problem on our hands”.
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2025-04-03
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