Chair of the opposition Save Romania Union (USR) Elena Lasconi said on Tuesday, after meeting with Venice Commission representatives, that they discussed the combination of local and European elections in summer 2024, adding that she also made a chronological presentation of „all the abuses committed by the Constitutional Court (CCR) and this system of politicians we know so well.”
„That was the beginning of the end,” Lasconi went on so say, „the local and European elections. We discussed our having strayed far away from democratic values and that normally, elections should not be combined, as was abusively done with the sole purpose of confusing people. Just think that in June we had five ballot papers people had to put the stamp on in the voting booths; think of all those images with bags full of ballots, of the cumbersome counting, think of the fatigue, how much fairness and reliability could one expect from the count of those ballots,” Lasconi stated at the Parliament Palace.
She argued that there had been situations in the country where candidates for local office were separated by just a few votes, and one could not trust that the count was done correctly.
„I also presented and talked about the Constitutional Court’s abusive decision to ban a candidate from the presidential race, about the recount throughout the country and overseas, although complaints had been filed in only three polling stations in Romania, and also about the cancellation of the presidential election, with the contenders who entered the second round having no chance defend themselves, because you cannot challenge a Constitutional Court ruling. We should have had the opportunity to do so, for instance at least at the High Court of Cassation and Justice, because being able to defend yourself is both a constitutional and an international right. (…) We consider all this to be an abuse,” Lasconi detailed.
She also said that the Venice Commission will provide a response in March.
„They asked us several specific things in connection to the emergency ordinance. Let us not forget that Marcel Ciolacu was the one who heavily trampled on Romanian democracy through that ordinance from where everything started to fall apart and the democracy overkill began. Let us not forget that Klaus Iohannis is also an accomplice. He is going home tomorrow, thank God! But there are others who also contributed to killing democracy in Romania,” the USR leader stated.
Several representatives of parliamentary parties met on Tuesday for discussions in a hybrid format with Venice Commission experts.
AGERPRES
