Romania’s Parliament Legal Committees Disapprove President’s Call For Referendum

Committee members cast 18 to 12 votes to disapprove the head of state’s call for a referendum, citing legislative void in the referendum law.

The head of the Senate’s committee for legal matters, social democrat Toni Grebla, said the president has the right to require the Parliament the organization of a referendum, but that isn’t possible because a number of stipulations of the referendum law have been declared unconstitutional, leading to a legislative void.

Grebla said the government has tried to fill the void by passing and emergency decree, which was rejected in Senate Tuesday.

„Technically, a referendum cannot be organized because we have a legislative void that the government can’t fix with an emergency decree,” Grebla said.

Romania’s Senate rejected Tuesday 73 to 40 votes a government emergency decree obliging Parliament to answer in 20 days the head of state’s request for a referendum. The decree is pending a vote in the Chamber of Deputies.

Prime Minister Emil Boc’s government, which lost a confidence vote in Parliament Tuesday, passed an emergency decree three weeks ago to amend the referendum law, stating the Parliament has 20 days to respond to the president’s request for a referendum, otherwise the head of state has the right to issue the decree for referendum.

Basescu, who will seek reelection in November, requested the organization of a referendum, simultaneously with the presidential elections set for November 22, to downsize the country’s 471-seat Parliament to a single chamber and a maximum of 300 seats.