Court Rejects Joint Elections in Romania

The nine judges of Romania’s top court on Wednesday dismissed a controversial law allowing the government to hold local and parliamentary elections on the same day.

The court said the law was unconstitutional and must go back to parliament, where the government could yet make adjustments to bring it in line with the constitution. Local elections will now take place in the first week of June in any case.

In December, the centre-right government of prime minister Emil Boc forced the bill through parliament, saying the merger of the elections could save about 20 million euro from the budget. Holding local and parliamentary elections at the same time would also make it easier for people to vote, Boc said.

But some critics said the move was mainly an attempt to neutralize some of the leftist opposition's current advantage in the polls.

The opposition alliance of Social Democrats and Liberals condemned the proposal, saying that changing the election law only five months before the vote violated European standards, and challenged it in the Constitutional Court.

Latest opinion polls show support for the opposition alliance at about 50 per cent compared with only around 18 per cent for Emil Boc's Democratic Liberal Party, PDL.

“We greet the decision of Constitutional Court. This is another blow for the government, which has to quit,” Victor Ponta, one of the opposition leaders, said. Prime Minister Boc said his government will obey the decision.

Analysts say the government, which has been rocked by two weeks of sometimes violent protests against austerity, now faces more hard times.

“An earlier local election will probably put the opposition parties in control of more city halls and so put them in a position to exert more influence on the voting in the general election,” journalist Cristian Teodorescu noted.

Since January 12, thousands of people have been protesting around the country against the government's austerity measures, including layoffs in the state sector, wage cuts and a hike in sales tax.

Romania is dependent on a 20 billion euro rescue package from the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank. It obtained the loan in May 2009 in exchange for agreeing to push through austerity measures aimed at taming the country’s yawning deficit.

Romania experienced a very slow economic recovery in 2011, with growth estimated at 1.5 per cent of GDP, and the public is far from feeling the effects of an economic comeback.