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Congressman Chris Smith wrote to Ponta worried about the amendment brought to the electoral law through OUG
The American congressman Christopher Smith addressed a letter to premier Victor Ponta to express his concern to the amendment of the electoral law in the electoral period and through OUG. He said that it generates doubt regarding the motivation and the moment.
In the letter sent to the premier at the end of last week, Smith, member of the Commission for foreign affairs,states that these measures can have consequenceson the domestic political collaboration after the voting.Christopher Smith required Ponta to strengthen the respect to democracy by allowing the electoral legislation to take its course, that of debate in the Parliament and not that of passing the law through OUG. In the opinion of the American congressman, the amendment of the electoral laws is better by using the help of the whole political spectrum.
He starts the letter by expressing his appreciation for the commitment that Romania manifests to the values and principles of liberty and democracy in the whole world and to the fact that the US and Romania were together in the case of Russia breaching the principles and the OSCE commitments through the illegal annexation of Crimea and through the involvement in the domestic issues of Ukraine.
The Republican Christopher Smith has been a member of the Chamber of Representatives since 1980 being at the 17th mandate. He activates in the Commission for foreign affairs. At the beginning of 2000, Smith had several positions with regards to the liberty for expression in Romania, the policies referring to the Roma people and asked for punishment for traffic of human beings. He is the one who in 2000 appreciated that a possible coming back to power of Ion Iliescu could bring back the corruption issue to the surface, which brought criticism at his address on the part of the PSDR and the accusation that he had wrongfully accused the former head of state. In 1995, Smith, at that time co-chairman of the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) of the US Congress stated that he would oppose the Clause of the most favourite nation for Romania on a permanent basis and he would militate for its withdrawal.
The government amended though OUG 45 the law for the election of the president of Romania, the most criticised provision being the one according to which the special polling stations are annulled, the right for vote being possible at any polling station in case the electors are in a different place than their own residence.
Another amendment aims at the institution of special regulations as regards the right of vote, through the special urn, in the case of people who have the right to vote but they are in prison, or those who are hospitalised, as the requests for voting could be presented to several polling stations in the neighbourhood of prisons, hospitals established through decision of the county electoral office or the electoral office of the Bucharest sector.