Electronic voting

Eduard Hellvig, who on Monday got the Parliament's all clear, by a vote of 498 to 15, for director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), took the oath of office before the Parliament's plenary sitting.

Photo credit: (c) MIHAI POZIUMSCHI / AGERPRES FLOW

The voting procedure was with secret ballots. (more to follow) AGERPRES

ABV, one of the parties supporting the coalition government, expressed its complete agreement with the proposal of Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev for holding a referendum on electoral rules.

Vote by mail could not be only for the Diaspora, on Wednesday said the chairman of the special parliamentary Committee for the elaboration of the legislative proposals on the electoral laws, Valeriu Zgonea

Photo credit: (c) MIHAI POZIUMSCHI/ AGERPRES FLOW

DPS leader Lyutvi Mestan ha called on politicians to start a debate on whether and how to keep the recently-introduced preference-voting system in the national legislation preventing any risk of abuse.

Mestan heads Bulgaria's third-largest party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), dominated by ethnic Turks.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Tuesday suggested Parliament to amend the existing legislation to include either postal voting or electronic voting, arguing that that is the best solution for all overseas Romanians to be able to vote when they want to.

"I take full responsibility for what happened and will present my resignation in today's government meeting," Teodor Melescanu said on Tuesday.

Central Electoral Bureau spokesperson Marian Muhulet told AGERPRES the Bureau did not receive any proposition from the Foreign Affairs Ministry to extend the voting hours in the polling stations abroad.

'We did not receive anything so far, it might have sent it to the Electoral Bureau No. 48 [for the polling stations abroad],' he mentioned.

Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu said on leaving the polls on Sunday that he had proposed the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) to extend the voting hours, but the Bureau rejected the proposal.

MEP Monica Macovei this Sunday asked again for the extension of voting hours in the polling stations abroad, a release informs.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Melescanu and Romania's Ambassador in Paris Bogdan Mazuru met on Sunday with the observers accredited to the polling stations in Paris to discuss the way the voting process unfurled in the capital of France in the two rounds for the election of the Romanian President.