NGO suggests Parliament to introduce direct election for President

The Public Authorities Monitoring Center NGO is asking parliamentarians to take into consideration a variant for overcoming the enduring political crisis: to modify Art.78 of the Constitution by introducing direct election of the President, then dissolve Parliament and hold elections of both the legislature and President according to the new rules. In a press release signed by the NGO's head, lawyer Ion Dron, it is said that even if the parliamentarians will be able to reach any consensus on how to overcome this particular crisis, a temporary solution does not guarantee that such a crisis will not happen in the future. “The ambiguity of some constitutional provisions and the preservation of Art.78 in its current version, and considering that the political division of society seems lasting, gives reason to conclude that such situations of political crisis can occur anytime in the future”. The NGO notes that while the term in office of the President is established at 4 years, the term of a parliament lately tends to be much shorter. Hence, given the President's power to nominate the Prime Minister and dissolve Parliament, nothing can guarantee that the new parliament or even the new president, motivated by some narrow political interests, won't be tempted to cause another institutional crisis and trigger yet another round of early elections, argued Ion Dron. “These crises, generated among other by the sometimes imperfect legislation, can be avoided if the legislative body takes urgent steps to develop and adopt another mechanism of electing the head of state”, concludes the press release.