The Constitutional Court dismissed as inadmissible the complaint about the deadline for organizing the presidential election, filed by MPs of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists. According to the ruling, no constitutional provision expressly stipulates a time frame within which the presidential election is to be held if the four-year term in office of the incumbent President expires. This issue was left to the discretion of the legislators, IPN reports.
In a press briefing, Constitutional Court president Domnica Manole stated that, given the constitutional provisions saying that the term in office of the President lasts for four years, Parliament is obliged to define a procedure for electing the head of state and to ensure the taking of the oath of office at the expiration of the four-year term of the incumbent President or within the shortest possible term after its expiry.
The Constitutional Court specified that the procedure for electing the new President must start in due time, until the expiry of the tenure of the incumbent President.
“The Court noted that a similar practice of organizing the presidential election before the expiration of the term in office of the incumbent President was also accepted in the 2020 presidential election. Although the four-year term of the President elected in 2016 expired on December 23, 2020, the election of a new President was held in two rounds on November 1 and November 15, 2020. Both rounds took place before the date on which the term of the previous President expired. The results of the election were confirmed by the Court’s decision of December 10, 2020, and the candidate whose election was validated took the oath on December 24, 2020 and on that date took office,” said Domnica Manole.
The decision also notes that the text “no later than 90 days before the date of expiry of the President’s term” in article 135, paragraph 2 of the Electoral Code does not affect article 79, paragraph 2 and article 90, paragraph 4 of the Constitution, nor does the Parliament’s decision of May 16, 2024.
