Constitutional Court deems joint elections in Romania unconstitutional

The law enabling Romania to organize joint local and parliamentary elections in 2012 is not constitutional, according to the Constitutional Court in the country. The opposition parties in Romania filed a request in December for the Court to verify whether the new piece of law follows the country's Constitution, after the Government assumed responsibility for the new legislation. The Government then said joint elections would save the country some EUR 21 million, bringing down the cost of organizing the elections to EUR 22 million. The Parliament will have to amend the unconstitutional parts of the legislation. Local elections will take place in the first week of June this year. The Social Democratic Party, one of the opposition parties that opposed the joint elections, said changing election law five months prior to organizing votes would violate European laws. editor@romania-insider.com