PM Victor Ponta says he already paid the political price for Romanians who couldn’t vote abroad, asks for electronic vote

Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta expressed his regret that not all Romanians abroad got the chance to vote in the first and second rounds of the presidential elections, earlier in November, and said that a new legislation is needed for elections, one which allows the electronic vote to be implemented. Ponta, who lost the Romanian presidential elections on November 16 to Klaus Iohannis, and then went in a short holiday in Dubai, resumed his duties on Monday, November 25. He was called upon by the Chamber of Deputies to answer for the poor organization of the voting process in the diaspora. Thousands of Romanians living abroad didn’t get to vote in the first and second rounds of the presidential elections (on November 2 and November 16) because of the long queues at the voting wards. Although the Government was asked to increase the number of voting wards after the first round fiasco, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said that there was no legal way to do this. However, two foreign affairs ministers, Titus Corlatean and Teodor Melescanu, resigned because of this situation. “I thank all those who voted in the diaspora, regardless of the candidate they voted for. I once again want to say that I’m sorry that not all of them could vote and that I paid the political price on November 16 (by not being elected president – e.n.). It’s a deserved price,” said Ponta. He then pointed out that the situation with the voting abroad was determined by the faulty legislation which needs to be changed. “According to official data, 550,000 Romanians are registered by consular authorities as living abroad. However, unofficial estimates show us that only about 10% of all Romanians living abroad got to vote in the second round of the presidential elections on November 16, and that there are about 3.5 to 3.8 million Romanians abroad,” Ponta said. He added that a solution must be found so that these people will be able to exercise their voting rights in the following elections. He asked the Parliament to think about new legislation that would include either voting by mail or electronic voting, and to set up an independent authority to organise the elections abroad, as this does not fall into the responsibilities of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Ludovic Orban, one of the leaders of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the main opposition party in Romania, said after Ponta’s speech that the Prime Minister still didn’t understand anything from this situation and asked for his resignation.