NGO argues Romania's public referendum on justice has no direct effects

Representatives of human rights oriented NGO APADOR-CH say that the questions announced by president Klaus Iohannis for the May 26 public referendum will be nothing more than "a mere national poll" as they are supposed to be followed by amendments to the Constitution for producing any legal effects.

“No matter how the people will respond, the action will not have legal consequences and even less influence on the anti-corruption fight,” they argue.

“Forbidding” amnesty or pardon for a category of crimes, as asked by the first question, involves a change of the Constitution. This requires the Parliament to adopt a law and then to hold another referendum to ask people’s consent again. The first question is also surprisingly limited to the corruption offenses stipulated in the Criminal Code (bribery and influence peddling), missing to capture a broader range of acts assimilated to corruption and stipulated in the anti-corruption law, which could be subject to amnesty, APADOH-CH representatives said in a press release on May 7.

Representatives of APADOR-CH added that, by combining three questions in one question (second question), the right of citizens to express their will in the referendum is paradoxically limited, they being unable to respond differently to each of the three questions.

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