Second Annual Conference in Teslic

Page 7

Dear AEOBiH members and colleagues,

This very weekend we have presidential elections in Romania. It is the second round as none of the candidates managed to get more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round. In my presentation I shall give you some background to the organization of elections in Romania. I shall provide you with all the administrative procedures and try also to address the most controversial or problematic aspects of the election administration.

A new constitution was approved by the two chambers of parliament and adopted by a referendum in December 1991. Article 59 of the constitution allows citizens 18 years old and older the right to vote. In July 1992 the parliament passed two laws, governing parliamentary (Act 68/1992) and presidential (Act 69/1992) elections.

The presidential election is direct. The candidate who wins a majority of the votes is elected. If a candidate fails to receive an absolute majority of the votes, a second election - as is happening this weekend - must be held with the participation of the two most successful candidates. Candidates must collect 100,000 signatures to take part in the presidential election.

Romania has adopted a proportional system to elect a Parliament consisting of two units: the House of Deputies and the Senate. In the 42 multi-member districts of Romania, one representative is elected to the House of Deputies for each 70,000 inhabitants and one Senator for each 160,000. Each party decides the candidates' list to be printed on the ballot. Voters can cast one vote for the House of Deputies and one for the Senate.

The law has a minimum requirement of 5% of the valid votes for representation in the House of Deputies and the Senate. This 5% threshold has been raised for the 2000 elections, prior to which the threshold was 3%.

The recently changed threshold has been well received by most people. It has reduced the number of parties to 5 in the parliament. At the same time, however, it has not been possible to establish a permanent Central Electoral Commission, which could owe to the fact that governments up until now have feared an independent body.

Let me explain how the administration works and what kinds of bodies are involved in the organization of our elections. The Central Electoral Bureau, the Constituency Bureau and the Electoral Bureau of the Polling stations are all temporary bodies. The designation of the judges to the Central Electoral Bureau and the Constituency Bureau take place by 5 days after the election date is fixed by drawing lots.

The president and deputy-president of the polling station shall, as a rule, be magistrates and jurists. They are designated 15 days before the election by drawing lots.

As integrity goes along with their task, the reason to assign judges in the electoral organization is easy to understand. But judges are not trained in organizational planning and the kind of teamwork this task requires. They do not necessarily have the qualifications needed.

The Central Technical Commission is a technical support organization to the elections that is set up at both the central and the county level. It is constituted by representatives from virtually all ministries and governments agencies. The Ministry for Civil Service holds the presidency of the Central Technical Commission.

We know that in some countries the central electoral body is independent from the Government. In other countries it is (too) close to the Government. The latter only works if the Government is trusted among the citizens. This is unfortunately not the case in Romania. The political parties outside the government and NGOs do not trust the Central Technical Commission or its work.

At county level, a County Technical Commission is established by law. It is directed by a prefect and supported by a technical work-group consisting of the secretary general of the prefecture and representatives of the public administration services at the county level.

The introduction of a Central Electoral Commission is, I think, needed in order to solve problems derived from the lack of professional electoral and logistic planning. It is clear that the easiest way to move towards a situation with a single and effective electoral body would be to keep the Central Electoral Bureau concept in the law, but to turn it into a permanent and independent body.

As for the registration of voters, we have seen one novelty. The electoral law stipulates that voter cards shall be issued to the complete electorate. It did not take place in 1992 or 1996 probably due to lack of resources and lack of cooperation between authorities. This year the Government adopted a new decision concerning voter cards. Only persons with identity cards will receive a voter card due to the impossibility to apply the stamp on the identity card (plastic); the rest of the people who still have identity books (papers) could continue to use it and a stamp would be applied on it when voting.

Regarding campaign expenditure, the Electoral Law covers control of parties, coalitions and independent candidates' income and expenditure. The law basically prohibits subventions from abroad and demands that subventions received after the opening of the electoral campaign can be used only if they have been publicly disclosed. Many NGOs agree that a change in the law is needed, requiring parties and candidates to maintain records of campaign income and expenditures and to submit returns to the electoral administration within a given time after the elections.

Let me also say a few words about the training of Local Electoral Bureau Members (Polling Station Staff).This year the training for the presidents and deputy-presidents of Polling Station Commissions were carried out by judges from the Constituency Bureau with the support of the County Technical Commission. A two hours training is, however, not sufficient and a lack of professionalism was evidently the result.

This year we had the opportunity to be assisted by IFES (sponsored by USAID). An IFES team participated in the training of local electoral officials and designed and produced a brochure helping election officials to better understand the substance of electoral law and clarifying the nature and extent of their authority.

Let me conclude by saying that Romania still has some way to go, but that we are heading in the right direction. We have gone through a difficult transition process and we still have a lot of work to do in securing an effective election administration. A strong civil society will help us to keep moving in the right direction in the coming years. Hopefully, we will soon see an independent election commission established.

Thank you very much for your attention.