The holding of a consultative referendum together with the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019 is impossible. The Democratic Party’s initiative is manipulative and will not actually result in the modification of the Parliament’s structure, said experts invited to the talk show “Expertise hour” on Jurnal TV channel, IPN reports.
Public policy expert Ștefan Gligor said that what the Democratic Party now tries to do is to merge a strategy that is supported by voters with an electoral exercise. “By doing so, the PDM adds value to itself in an electoral exercise as it creates a positive context as, when the people vote for that initiative in the referendum, they will be automatically predisposed to also vote the PDM that is the author of this initiative,” stated Ștefan Gligor.
Expert of the WatchDog community Valeriu Pașa said the announcement of a referendum on the modification of the Parliament’s structure is a pre-electoral trick designed to manipulate as, instead of discussing serious things, the people will have to discuss a false agenda. “This is not a decisional referendum to amend the Constitution. The Constitution can be amended six months after the Constitutional Court gives a positive appraisal,” he stated, noting this action by the government represents manipulation.
Socialist MP Grigore Novac said a constitutional plebiscite cannot be held now as only two weeks remained until the expiration of the Parliament’s mandate. The Constitutional Court’s consent of 2015 to holding such a referendum cannot be taken into account as this is valid for a year. “A constitutional referendum is not possible because we do not match the timeframe, while a consultative referendum does not have effects. If we theoretically admit that a bill that respects the six-month period had existed, the draft laws should be anyway reintroduced as they are not transferred from one legislature to another,” stated the MP.
Political analyst Corneliu Ciurea said the PDM’s initiative should be regarded in an electoral context and is aimed at creating a favorable climate for the PDM. “It is an absolutely normal electoral strategy designed to promote ideas, initiatives that are popular with the people and to generate discussions on these issues that could not be avoided by many politicians. For example, the Socialists supported this idea earlier and it would be abnormal for them to reject it now,” noted the analyst.
On November 13, the Democratic Party proposed holding a referendum concomitantly with the parliamentary elections set for February 24, 2019. In the plebiscite, the people will pronounce on the proposal to reduce the number of MPs from 101 to 61 and also on the possibility of withdrawing the seat of MP by the voters when they are not satisfied with the MPs’ work.
