Romanian Govt To Leave Presidential Elections Law Unchanged

The Government discussed Wednesday the draft law on the presidential elections, and will only make some minor technical amendments to the active regulations regarding the organization of polling stations.

Any other amendments to this law will be performed after the presidential elections, Boc said.

Romania Prime Minister Emil Boc recently said he does not back the minimum deposit measure for presidential candidates, since this infringes the constitutional right to participate in such elections, adding he does not support other amendments either, such as an increase in the number of required signatures.

"Prime Minister Emil Boc said he does not support the introduction of the minimum deposit for presidential candidates since this measure represents an infringement of the constitutional right to run for president. In addition, the prime minister feels no amendments can be made in the candidacy conditions during the election year. In this respect, the prime minister does not support the proposition to increase the number of signatures required from each presidential candidate," said a press release issued by the Government’s Press Office.

Also, the leader of the democrat liberal deputies recently said the party does not agree with the increase to 500,000 from 200,000 of the number of signatures needed by the candidates to run for president.

Regarding the date of the elections, Toader said the democrat liberals want the first poll to be organized on November 22, and the second on December 6.

The candidate guarantee, worth 2,000 minimum wages, will be analyzed to see if it needs changes or if it should remain unchanged.

The level of the guarantee will be analyzed in a Government meeting when the final form of the draft law is drawn up, the decision regarding the guarantee level being the parliament’s attribution, Toader said.

Romanian daily Evenimentul Zilei wrote that according to the new draft law on presidential elections, each candidate will have to pay EUR300.000 to be able to run for president.

Social democrat leader Mircea Geoana rejected the idea of introducing a financial guarantee for the candidates in the presidential elections, saying that this would be “an artificial obstacle”.