Civic initiative to ban convicted people from public office gains traction in Romania

The civic initiative to ban convicted people from holding public office positions by changing the Constitution has gathered some 340,000 signatures by Sunday, July 22. The initiators need to gather another 160,000 signatures in one month to reach the 500,000 signatures threshold needed to ask the Parliament for a national referendum, which they are optimistic they will achieve, Agerpres reported. However, they also need to raise at least 20,000 signatures in 21 of Romania’s 41 counties, which may prove more difficult. The initiative has gathered over 20,000 signatures in Bucharest, Brasov, Sibiu, Cluj and Timis counties and may also achieve this goal in five or six other counties in the next two weeks, according to Dan Barna, the president of the Save Romania Union (USR), one of the main opposition parties in Romania, which initiated the #FaraPenali campaign. The campaign gained more traction last week, when dozens of actors joined the efforts to gather signatures. Romanian actors join civic initiative to ban convicted people from public office (Photo: Fără Penali în Funcții Publice Facebook Page) editor@romania-insider.com