Blog post published by presidential-power.com
On 21 September President Băsescu sent the bill lowering the participation threshold of national referenda to the Constitutional Court. According to the new law, the results of national referenda will be binding if 30 per cent of the registered voters turn out to vote, and if 25 per cent of the registered voters cast a valid ballot.
This is the second time that the Court has had to examine this bill since it was first adopted in late May 2013 by the Chamber of Deputies, where the governing parties – the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) – hold a two-thirds majority. The main opposition party – the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) – which is also President Băsescu’s former party, opposed the reduction of the participation threshold and referred the new bill to the Constitutional Court in June 2013. The Court ruled that the new referendum law does not violate the constitution as long as it is used for referenda held one year after its enforcement. The president has now referred the bill to the court again on the same grounds regarding the reduction of the participation threshold.
The debate on what constitutes a valid referendum in Romania started in 2007. At that time, President Băsescu was suspended by the parliament and a referendum was held to decide whether he should stay in office. Then, the governing parties attempted to remove any participation threshold thinking that there might be a low turnout. They were unsuccessful and the referendum went ahead in May 2007 without a minimum participation requirement. On that occasion, a large majority voted against the president’s dismissal. In July 2012 President Băsescu was suspended once again and another destitution referendum was held. This time the referendum failed because only 46 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote, which was lower than the 50 per cent threshold required.
The timing of the new attempt to change the referendum law is related to the PSD-PNL government coalition’s plans to ease the adoption of a revised constitution, which is expected to weaken the powers of the president. The government plans to hold the referendum for the adoption of the new constitution simultaneously with the first round of the presidential election, which should take place in November 2014. However, the president may be able to compromise the government’s schedule by delaying the promulgation of the referendum law.
According to the Romanian Constitution, the president can return bills to parliament for a new examination and can also send bills to the Constitutional Court before promulgation. President Băsescu has used both of these powers to delay the promulgation of the new referendum law. He first asked the parliament to re-examine it in July 2013 on the grounds that a participation threshold lower than 50 per cent plus does not assure the representativeness of popular consultations. The president’s veto was overturned by the Chamber of Deputies on 11 September. On September 21, President Băsescu asked the Constitutional Court to rule on its constitutionality on the same grounds.
The Court is expected to issue its second decision on this bill on 23 October. However, due to the Court’s previous ruling on the bill, the government may not be able to take advantage of a lower participation threshold in any referendum if the constitutional referendum is held simultaneously with next year’s presidential election.
