Data referring to Romania's electoral rolls centralized by the Domestic Affairs Ministry and the External Affairs Minister will be sent to the country's Constitutional Court today (August 20) and made public after being sent to the Court. The Court will decide on the validity of the referendum, after checking the data, on August 21.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta said the data is neither invested nor calculated by the Social Liberal Union (USL). The Government sent the data on the number of people included in the electoral rolls used for the July 29 presidential impeachment referendum. Following the Referendum, not yet validated, president Traian Basescu is still suspended, while the country is led by interim president Crin Antonescu, the leader of ruling coalition member the National Liberal Party (PNL).

The Domestic Affairs Minister does not operate the permanent electoral rolls, but will send the court a complex evaluation of the categories of people who should have been taken out from the list by the reference date. City Halls should have updated the rolls, sending death, birth and marriage certificates.

The Court will have to check the electoral roll, after the Interior Ministry sent data about the 18.2 million registered voters. The Court later asked for the exact electoral rolls from the Government and a political row erupted over the proposed mini-census and the accuracy of the information provided to the Court.

The recent referendum sparked debate, as the size of the electorate was determined by information from before the 2011 census. This, according to pundits, influenced the validity of the vote, which needed 50 percent plus one of registered voters to pass. Otherwise, according to the law in place, with the referendum invalid, the suspended president returns to power.

Only 46.24 percent of Romanians attended the referendum, on July 29, and 87.5 percent of them voted for the impeachment of the president, according to final official data.

editor@romania-insider.com