The United Right asks the Ombudsman to refer the CCR regarding the merging of the elections

Cătălin Drulă, Ludovic Orban and Eugen Tomac - the leaders of the United Dreapta Unită alliance - asked the Ombudsman yesterday to appeal to the Constitutional Court of Romania the emergency ordinance regarding the merging of the European Parliament and local elections, which would take place on June 9, according to a press release from press sent to the Editor.

During a press conference held by the three political leaders at the Parliament Palace, former Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, president of the Forţa Dreptei formation, said: "We request the Ombudsman to attack, without delay, the ordinance adopted on Friday by the PSD-PNL Government, given that the Ombudsman is the only institution that can, at this moment, take the approach to the Constitutional Court. The emergency ordinance is not in agreement with the democratic principles previously promoted by the PNL. We need to remind people again, however, that it was the National Liberal Party that banned political trailing for local elected officials in 2006, not when they were in opposition, but when they were in power. And today it ended up relegalizing political trasism, although, in 2014, when the Ponta Government issued GEO 55 to allow political migration on the eve of the presidential elections, the PNLists were the ones who attacked the CCR GEO 55, through parliamentary channels, and this was declared unconstitutional".

For his part, Eugen Tomac, the PNL leader, stated that the normative act adopted by the Government institutes a system that will lead to discrimination.

Mr. Tomac specified: "PSD and PNL implemented a discriminatory system, which hinders the electoral process. Removing a party with European representation from the polling stations to replace the organizations belonging to national minorities, which did not participate in the European Parliament elections and do not have legal representatives in the European legislature, is an attack on democracy. We believe that European parliamentary political parties must benefit from equal conditions in the electoral process, without any restriction or interference. It is yet another proof of the fact that the PMP is the most harassed party by the Romanian Commissar Party. We will report this unprecedented abuse to all international institutions. They undermined democracy for their own interest."

According to the new electoral alliance, the OUG regarding the consolidation of elections violates several constitutional provisions, including those related to equal rights, the right to vote and the right to be elected, but also several previous decisions of the Constitutional Court.

The cited press release states: "The development of an emergency ordinance for merging the elections and changing some essential aspects, such as the mandate of local elected officials, is not justified, in accordance with art. 115 of the Romanian Constitution. The electoral calendar was known for a long time, it was predictable, and the merger is not the result of an unforeseen situation that was not in the control of the decision-makers, but it is the result of political negotiations that were started late and dragged on for a long time, risking jeopardizing holding the elections in good conditions. Moreover, the Constitutional Court has repeatedly shown, including in Decision no. 426/2023, the fact that, the closer to the date of the elections the moment of the legislative amendments, the stronger is the presumption that the respective amendments aim to create a benefit/advantage for the political party that adopted them, being dictated by the interests its imminent, and may result in the manipulation of the electorate»".

The quoted document states that "by advancing the local elections so that they are organized on the same date as the European Parliament elections, young people who would have turned 18 between the new date of the local elections and the initial date (in the month of September)".

The leaders of the United Right Alliance also claim that by establishing a 60-day deadline, i.e. the proposed reduction of the period for registering a vote based on residence (floating visa) even before the elections, the voting rights of many young people, workers and people who relied on existing legislation.