The undersigned civil society organization would like to issue this press release in order to express their concern with the degradation of respect toward democratic procedures which has been going on during the past few weeks. They issue the following appeal:
1. A correct and equitable vote
If Parliament’s decision to suspend the President and submit this initiative to the citizen’s vote were political acts completed within the farthest limits of the law, the latest Parliament decision regarding the referendum exposes the final outcome of this process to an arbitrary decision. We are referring to the paragraph that stipulates that “should the Constitutional Court establish that the validity criteria set through law were not met, Romania’s Parliament will make note of its ruling and decide upon the best suited procedure to follow.” Basically, if less than half the voters show up for the vote, their vote will be up for any type of interpretation after the fact. In other words, the referendum is rendered useless, as MPs abusively create the opportunity to replace their own will for that of the citizens. The undersigned organizations demand that the Constitutional Court and Parliament clarify the manner in which the citizens’ vote is interpreted before it is cast.
Along the same lines, the organizations would like to draw attention to the risk of multiple voting – a phenomenon that also occurred during the 2004 elections, as well as during the referendum to amend the Constitution in 2003 – which is still present. We demand that the Government urgently intervenes to limit this risk.
With respect to the organization of the referendum abroad, given the multiple problems encountered in 2004, as well as the increase in the number of Romanians who live abroad, we ask that the Government ensures adequate voting conditions, in direct proportion to the number of voters abroad, so that they may freely express their options.
2. Taking responsibility
The undersigned organizations believe that a possible negative vote from the electorate on the Parliamen’s proposal that the President be forced to resign might, in turn, represent a negative signal with respect to the extent to which MPs and the citizens who elected them are still in agreement with one another. In such a situation, it is mandatory that MPs verify their quality as representatives of public will and submit themselves to an electoral test.
To this end, we worriedly note that the introduction of the uni-nominal vote has vanished off the list of political agents’ interests, although they did promise that by the end of this Parliament session we will have an electoral law based on uni-nominal elections. We remind MPs that the majority of citizens cast their votes in favor of this amendment.
3. Participation in the vote is essential on May 19
The surest way to eliminate all possibilities of misinterpreting or otherwise faulting the result of this consultation is massive attendance in the vote. The undersigned organizations appeal to all citizens that they contribute to finding a solution to this crisis situation by taking part in the vote.
The under-signed:
• Academia de Advocacy
• Agenţia de Monitorizare a Presei
• Alianţa Civică a Romilor din România
• Asociaţia Pro Democraţia
• Asociaţia 21 Decembrie 1989
• Asociaţia Revoluţionarilor fără Privilegii
• APADOR-CH
• Blocul Naţional al Revoluţionarilor 1989
• Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent
• Centrul de Resurse pentru Participare Publică
• CENTRAS
• Centrul Roman pentru Jurnalism de Investigaţie
• Fundaţia Gheorghe Ursu
• Grupul pentru Dialog Social
• Romani CRISS
• Societatea Academică din România
• Societatea Timişoara
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