VotCorect Coalition: PNL and PSD to drop intention to merge elections; limits some voters' rights

Expert Forum, CIVICA Association, Centre for Civic Resources - member organisations of the VotCorect Coalition, call on PNL and PSD to abandon the intention to merge the European parliamentary elections with the local elections in June, on the grounds that this proposal "limits certain voters' rights and affects electoral competition and the principles of legal certainty". ‘We require PNL and PSD to give up such proposals and organize the elections in such a way that it does not affect the fundamental electoral rights, according to the constitutional principles and the assumed international standards’, state on Wednesday the mentioned organisations, in a press release. According to the quoted source, the merging of elections, amending electoral legislation on major issues, less than five months before the elections, ‘ contrave’es' the international standards assumed by Romania."The Venice Commission's Code of Good Practice on Electoral Matters indicates that one year before the elections, legislative changes with a major impact should be avoided, even affecting the credibility of the electoral process. Although they are not forbidden and positive measures are allowed, in this case the merger only negatively affects voters' rights. And we are not talking about changes that are more than a year old, but about a very short period of four months, during which several legislative changes are supposed to take place," says the VotCorect Coalition. According to the same source, the previous local elections took place at the end of September, the mandate of the local elected is four years, and the organization of a voting in June ‘could create confusion’ with regard to the taking over of their mandates."According to the Administrative Code, the local council is constituted within 60 days from the date of the elections, and the merger could actually shorten their terms of office, affecting the start of the mayor's term of office. The merger would imply changes or derogations from the legislation on the deadlines for taking office less than four months before election day, which affects the principle of security of legal relations," says the VotCorect Coalition. According to the opinion of the above mentioned organisations, by merging the European parliament elections with the local ones in the month of June, the right to vote will be affected.    ‘The right to vote will be affected. A serious consequence of this decision  is that for the local elections the right to vote at the address of your residence will be eliminated for the voters who did not register the residence with at least six months before the elections date, namely at the beginning of January. This regulation, introduced in 2023 was rather restrictive, but in this context it only extend the number of those who will not be able to use this option, which means the restriction of the exertion of a fundamental right’ the press release says.