Romanian PM: Latest census data show needed turnout for presidential impeachment referendum was reached in 2012

A new President – Prime Minister quarrel seems to shape up after the new census data in Romania were announced. The recently released final data of the 2011 census shows that the referendum last year to impeach Romania’s president Traian Basescu had in fact reached its needed threshold of 50 percent, said Prime Minister Victor Ponta (in picture), who asked the Internal Affairs and Administration Minister to update the legislation to the new census data. “I have seen the final data from the census, better late than never. We were over 50 percent on July 29 (2012, e.n) […] but it is not of much help now,” said the PM. In response, President Traian Basescu said the PM showed he still is the same person lacking responsibility when he talks. The National Statistics Institute recently issued the latest census data from 2011, which add 1.1 million people to the preliminary data revealed in February 2012. The total number of Romanians was of 20.1 million in October 2011, when the latest census was made. The drop compared to 2002, when the previous census was organized, is of 1.5 million Romanians. Out of the 20.1 million Romania, 16.2 million are over 18, but, according to the INS, this is not the number of people with voting rights in Romania. The actual number of people with voting rights was however not yet revealed. The INS discovered that around 1.1 million people were not included in the 2011 census, and the data was completed using administrative sources, meaning databases from seven public institutions. The referendum to impeach the Romanian president in July 2012 failed after fewer people than needed attended the vote, thus the 50 percent of the voters threshold was not reached, according to electoral data in 2012. In total, 8.2 million people took part in the vote, which was then a 46 percent turnout. The majority of those who attended the vote wanted to impeach the president. Back then, the president’s supporters’ strategy was to convince people not to attend the referendum in order to invalidate it. editor@romania-insider.com