Civil society in Romania protests against joint elections in 2012

Civil society representatives have planned a protest today (December 22) against he Government’s decision for joint local and parliamentary elections in 2012. Members of the Resource Centre for Public Participation (CeRe) and other representatives of the civil society will protest at the Parliament, according to their announcement. Joint elections threaten the country’s democracy, increase fraud risks, make bribery more efficient, and lead to significant loss of quality discussions on the election, while helping political parties use image drivers to attract votes for less competitive candidates, according to a CeRe statement. “We also disagree with the Government’s procedure of taking the responsibility on the joint elections. The lack of consultation and public debate with political parties and civil society especially on such a subject, gets us closer to North Korea and not the European Union,” according to CeRe’s statement. Romanian President Traian Basescu has recently said that in practice he agrees with the joint local and parliamentary elections next year. Romania’s opposition Social liberal Union submitted a vote of confidence request on the Government’s plan to pass the parliamentary procedure and adopt a bill that would enable it to organize the local and parliamentary elections at the same time in 2012. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sxc.hu)