Romanian Govt. plans to increase turnout threshold ahead of referendum on justice

The Romanian government plans to adopt an emergency ordinance that would increase the turnout threshold necessary to make a referendum valid, making it harder for the upcoming referendum on justice to be validated, local Digi24 reported.

Through the planned emergency ordinance, at the proposal of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), the validation threshold will be calculated based on different data, and this would require an additional 200,000 voters (or a total of more than 5.6 million votes) for the referendum to be validated.

Local publication Adevarul explained that, according to the project initiated by AEP, the 30% threshold required to validate a referendum would be calculated based on the number of voters in the electoral register. At present, the validation threshold is calculated based on data provided by the permanent electoral lists. The number of voters in the electoral register is more than 600,000 higher than that in the permanent lists, and this means that more people will need to vote in the upcoming referendum on justice launched by president Klaus Iohannis.

By comparison, at the previous referendum organized in Romania last fall, which was aimed at changing the definition of family in the Constitution so as to ban same-sex marriages in Romania, the turnout was calculated based on the number of voters included in the permanent electoral lists. However, the turnout was very low and the referendum was not validated.

President Klaus Iohannis announced about a month ago that he would convene a referendum aimed at stopping the ruling party's assault on justice. He made the announcement amid rumors that the government was planning to pass important changes to the criminal code by emergency ordinance.

The referendum on justice will be organized on May 26, the same day as the European Parliament elections. The Romanians will have to answer Yes or No to two questions, namely “Do you agree with banning amnesty and pardon for corruption offenses?” and “Do you agree with banning the adoption by the Government of emergency ordinances in the area of crimes, punishments and judiciary organization, and with extending the right to challenge ordinances directly at the Constitutional Court?.”