Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) wants to prosecute former foreign affairs minister Titus Corlatean for limiting the voting rights of Romanians living abroad during the 2014 presidential elections.

The prosecutors also plan to investigate Corlatean for abuse of office and getting undue benefits for another person, in this case for former Prime Minister Victor Ponta who competed in the presidential race. By limiting the voting access to Romanians abroad, Corlatean helped Ponta get a higher percentage of favorable votes as most of the Romanians abroad traditionally voted against Ponta’s party (the Social Democratic Party – PSD), the prosecutors argued.

The DNA prosecutors have asked the Senate to waive Corlatean’s immunity so that he could be investigated, according to a DNA press release. Titus Corlatean was Romania’s foreign affairs minister in Victor Ponta’s cabinet between August 6, 2012 and November 10, 2014.

He resigned after thousands of Romanians weren’t able to vote in the first round of the 2014 presidential elections, on November 2, 2014. Corlatean was blamed for not setting up enough polling stations for the Romanian diaspora. Although Victor Ponta came first in the first round of the elections, he lost in the second round to Klaus Iohannis, who was Sibiu’s mayor at that time, largely due to the voting abroad scandal, which mobilized Romanians through social media to go and vote against him.

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editor@romania-insider.com