New Constitutional Court talks on law banning convicts from Romanian Govt.

The Constitutional Court in Romania (CCR) will resume talks today on a law from 2001, which prohibits convicted people to become members of the Government. It is the fifth time when the Court meets to discuss the law, after having postponed a decision for four times. CCR president Valer Dorneanu explained that the issue was “delicate”. This law prevented Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea to take the Prime Minister seat after his party’s victory in the 2016 parliamentary elections due to a suspended prison sentence. Dragnea was sentenced last year to 2 years of probation for electoral fraud in 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. Law 90 from 2001 bans convicts and people in an incompatibility state from holding governmental offices. Dragnea has been repeatedly saying that the law is “profoundly unconstitutional”. editor@romania-insider.com