Ilie Bolojan: Government should establish presidential election calendar next week

The interim chairperson of the National Liberal Paty (PNL), Ilie Bolojan, said that the Government should establish next week the calendar for the presidential elections, so that they can be organized before the Easter holidays."Regarding Mr. Antonescu's announcement, I would like to make a few clarifications. The first issue is related to the election calendar, and here I think that Mr. Antonescu is right, if we want, and PNL does want for the presidential elections to be organized as soon as possible. Analyzing the legislative provisions regulating this matter, we have 75 days to establish an electoral calendar before election day. Therefore, if we want these elections to be organized by Easter, this would mean that the second round would be organized before the feast of Palm Sunday, so on April 6, which means that the first round could be on March 23, which would mean that the Romanian Government should adopt this electoral calendar no later than next week, because time, from this point of view, is very much pressing us," Bolojan told private broadcaster Digi 24.He also said that the legislation regulating the presidential elections does not allow an independent candidate, even if supported by some parliamentary parties, to have representatives in polling stations."Therefore, I believe that this legal provision should also be amended in such a way that parliamentary parties, whether they support their own candidate or an independent candidate, since they have been legitimized by the electorate's vote, should not only have representatives in the Central Electoral Bureau, as it is now, but they should have representatives in all polling stations. So, if these legislative issues are not resolved next week, it means that the presidential elections will be postponed until after the Easter holidays. This would mean in May at the earliest, and we believe that the sooner this calendar is established, the shorter the timeframe, the more a topic of debate in society related to the postponement of elections, related to the provisional status, can be resolved only through a shorter and clearer calendar," Bolojan mentioned.