Suspending the elections, an economic measure against the crisis

Cutting expenditures to a minimum is the main wish of the Boc government, at least judging by their statements. The latest initiative in that direction, namely the simultaneous holding of next year's elections, could help the budget save approximately 22 million Euros. The savings could be even greater considering that the opposition plans to withdraw from the Parliament. There are also politicians who ironically suggested to Minister Traian Igaş, the initiator of the proposal, that it would be far more economical not to hold any elections at all, by suspending them for the duration of the financial crisis. Aside from the 43 million Euros needed for organizing the elections, important savings would be achieved on the electoral campaign as well, a part where significant amounts are spent, often pointlessly. On a different note, one of the leaders of the opposition, Crin Antonescu, announced that there are major odds that the USL would boycott the next parliamentary session: " The withdrawal of the opposition from the Parliament is a solution which we are bringing forward with great seriousness. We account for almost half of the members of the Parliament. Anywhere in the world that would mean advance elections. As a result, we are going to solve the issue of the merger of elections and of advance elections, we will create a Parliament that will express the updated will of the nation and a government that would represent the new majority, a government which has legitimacy. It's just that the members of the government wouldn't consider this kind of alternatives if they weren't constrained. If we were to withdraw, it's clear what they would do on the next day - they would either continue to tell us: «You can keep blocking reforms, and we can carry on with our term», or they can just hold advance elections on those colleges, which would be pointless. Or, when that happens, the people would actually react, (ed. note: and they would say): «Early elections are the only solution ». We can do such a gesture, but if we are going to be left aside and constantly commented on ... In a way, the official presentation of the draft bill by which the PDL is abusively trying to merge two extremely important rounds of elections, but even more ridiculously, is trying to increase its own numbers of MPs, makes me happy in a way, because this would reveal to the citizens of this country, if it hasn't already happened, the lack of good-faith of these crooked politicians, together with president Băsescu, who has been condoning them all of these years". Antonescu is convinced that, under the circumstances proposed by the PDL, next year electoral bribery will become something extremely common.

The entire discussion was sparked by the proposal of the Ministry of the Administration and Internal Affairs, which wants to hold the elections for the authorities of the public administration at the same time with those for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, on a date to be determined through a decision of the Government. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the simultaneous elections would cut the expenses by half, from 43 to 22 million Euros. Expenses for the preparation, organization and the holding of the elections of 2012 will be borne by the state budget. "As part of the discussions that we had with the mayors the idea arose that holding the elections simultaneously in 2012 is opportune, because it would allow savings of tens of millions of Euros. The amounts that would be saved by holding just one round of elections, would be redirected towards investments", minister Traian Igaş said. The opposition has already announced that, if the government takes responsibility for the merger of the elections, the first thing they would do would be to file a motion of no-confidence. The UDMR (Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania) considers that the project of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is "surprising", but the UDMR views it as "acceptable", senator Fekete Andras Levente said.