Romania’s Constitutional Court (CCR) delayed yesterday for the third time a decision on a law from 2001, which prohibits convicted people to become members of the government.

This law prevented Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea to take the Prime Minister seat after his party’s victory in the December 11 parliamentary elections due to a suspended prison sentence. Dragnea was sentenced last year to 2 years of probation in a case in which he was indicted for electoral fraud at the 2012 referendum to suspend former president Traian Basescu.

In January, the Romanian Ombudsman Victor Ciorbea raised the objection of unconstitutionality regarding this law. CCR president Valer Dorneanu said in February, after the second delay, that this is the most difficult case ever analyzed by the Constitutional Court.

The law no.90 from 2001 bars convicts and people in an incompatibility state from holding governmental offices. Dragnea repeatedly said that the law is “profoundly unconstitutional”.

editor@romania-insider.com