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Romania elects on a national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people (after a change from four-year terms after the 2004 election). The Romanian Parliament (Parlamentul României) has two chambers. The Chamber of Deputies (Camera Deputaţilor) has 346 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation. The Senate (Senatul) has 143 members, elected for a four-year term by mixed member proportional representation. Romania has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.
In 2007, for the first time, Romanians elected their representatives to the European Parliament. The date for these elections was 25 November. See also European Parliament election, 2007.
The President is elected in a two round system for a five-year term. If one candidate obtains a majority of 50%+1 of all registered voters in the first round, he or she is declared the winner. If none of the candidates achieve this, then a run-off is held between the two contenders with the top scores in the first round. The candidate who obtains any majority of votes in the run-off is declared the winner.
The term of the president is five years. Between 1992 and 2004 the term was of four years, but was increased following the 2003 Constitutional referendum. One person can serve a maximum of two terms, that may be consecutive.
In order to be able to run for the Office of President a candidate must fulfill the following conditions: be born a Romanian citizen, be at least 40 years of age (at least on the day of the election), and not have held the office for two terms since 1992, when the 1991 Constitution took effect.
The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are elected in constituencies, by universal, equal, direct, secret, and freely expressed suffrage, on the basis of a list system and independent candidatures, according to the principle of closed party list proportional representation. The option for an identical election system of the two Chambers of Parliament confers them the same legitimacy, as both of them are the expression of the will of the same electoral body.
The two Chambers have different numbers of members: the Chamber of Deputies is composed of 332 Deputies, and the Senate of 137 Senators. This differentiation is possible owing to the legal provision of a representation norm differing from one Chamber to the other. Thus, for the election of the Chamber of Deputies the representation norm is of one Deputy to 70,000 inhabitants, and for the election of the Senate, of one Senator to 160,000 inhabitants.
The number of Deputies and Senators to be elected in each constituency is determined on the basis of the representation norm, by relating the number of inhabitants in each constituency to the representation norm. In a constituency, the number of Deputies cannot be less than four, and that of Senators, less than two. The number of inhabitants taken into account is that existing on 1 July of the previous year, published in the Statistical Yearbook of Romania. If, at least five months before the election date, a general census has taken place, the number of inhabitants taken into account is that resulting from the census.
The votes validly expressed throughout the country for the election of one Deputy.
The mandates assigned, under the conditions of the Election Law, to organizations of citizens belonging to national minorities are added to the Deputy mandates resulted from the representation norm.
To elect the 32 MEPs (35 MEPs between 2007 and 2009, 33 between 2009 and 2014), Romania is considered a single constituency. The system used is closed party list proportional representation, with a 5% threshold of the votes.
To elect the mayors the first past the post is used. The candidate who wins most of the votes is declared elected.
For the office of Presidents of the County Councils, since 2008 the first pass the post system is used. Until 2008, the County Council Presidents were indirectly elected, by the County Council.
To elect the Local and County Councils, the closed party list proportional representation, with a 5% threshold of the votes at the constituency level (city, commune or county).
Irrespective of the type of election, the vote is done by using paper and manual counting. The voter is required to prove his/hers identity using the Identity card (or the previous version, the Identity bulletin), or, for special reasons, the military ID or the passport. After (s)he signs in the permanent, supplemental, or special electoral list, (s)he is handed a voting ballot (buletin de vot) and a stamp that reads VOTAT YYYY TTT (voted); YYYY stands for the year the election is held, and TTT for the type of elections to be held: L for local elections (including partial), PE for European Parliament election, R for referendums (R.V.U. was used in 2007). For the general election, up to now, there was no additional type indicator, as it is granted most importance.
For the local and parliamentary elections, the voter can vote only at the polling station where (s)he has the permanent address (domiciliu), or the temporary residence (flotant) at least three months old. For the local election, the Romanians outside Romania cannot vote. For the parliamentary election they vote the candidates for the 43rd constituency. For the European Parliament and presidential elections the voters can vote at a different pooling station than the local and parliamentary elections, but only if (s)he is not in the home-town the voting day.
The voting ballot is printed on newspaper paper, monochrome. All the candidates (or the full candidate list) are listed in a lottery type established order (first the parliamentary parties, than the non-parliamentary parties, and at the end, the independent candidates), each in a clearly designated rectangular that consists of the full party name, the candidate (or full list) and the party logo. Voters express their choice buy stamping the rectangular of the party or independent candidate (s)he wishes to vote for. For referendums the same voting procedure is used. Each of the two options (YES – DA and NO – NU) are in a 5×5 cm square, YES on top and NO at the bottom, and the question voted for in the middle of the voting ballot.
Elections were marked by the splitting of the Social Liberal Union (USL) two months earlier. The National Liberal Party ran alone, while the former allies (Social Democratic Party, National Union for the Progress of Romania, and Conservative Party) ran as an alliance that they tried to name Social Democratic Union (USD); legal provisions made this impossible. These were the first elections for the People's Movement Party, and the last for the Democratic Liberal Party, and the Civic Force, as later in 2014 they merged into the National Liberal Party.
Notes
The Social Liberal Union (USL) won the general election with over 60% of the most seats in both houses of Parliament.
This election generated a Parliament with 117 seats more than in the pre-election Chamber of Deputies and Senate.
The Constitution of Romania defines that a referendum has to be called to:[3]
Moreover, the Constitution defines that a referendum can be called on matters of national interest by the President of Romania after consultation with Parliament (article 90).
There were 6 referendums in post-communist Romania:
There was also 1 referendum in Socialist Republic of Romania, 3 referendums in Kingdom of Romania and 2 referendums in The Romanian United Principalities.
Romanian language, Liberalism, European People's Party, Senate of Romania, Social Democratic Party (Romania)
Social Democratic Party (Romania), National Liberal Party (Romania), Romanian language, Parliament of Romania, President of the Senate of Romania
European Union, European Parliament, European People's Party, Social Democratic Party (Romania), Romania
Romania, Politics of Romania, Foreign relations of Romania, Politics, Parliament of Romania