Romania's Electoral Code Commission has decided that Romanians living abroad will be represented by two deputies and one senator following general elections due to take place in the country this fall. The rule, according to analysts, will be a major disadvantage for Democrat Liberals. The Electoral Code Commission declared that those Romanians living abroad who have the right to vote amount to 160,000 people.
Commission representatives declared that they took into account the number of Romanians present at the 2007 Referendum and the 2007 European Parliamentary elections. However, they admit that they data may be inexact. Representatives of the Romanian community in Italy declare that the number of deputies and senators representing them is insufficient.
Estimates show that some 1.7 million Romanians are living in Italy and Spain alone. Had they been living in Romania, they would be entitled to choose 10 senators and 24 deputies. Representatives of the Romanian community in Italy declared that in Italy alone the number of Romanians who have a right to vote amounts to 800,000.
Meanwhile, the opposition Social Democrats have already started up their campaign abroad and promised Romanians in Italy two deputy mandates. According to the Electoral Code Commission deputy head Florin Iordache the official data show that in Europe there are a little over 100 000 Romanians with a right to vote.
Some of the members of the commission declared that the situation is normal and pinpoint to the uninominal law: the numbers are limited by the law. Thus, no matter how many Romanians abroad show up to elect their representative in the national parliamentary elections, they will only be able to choose four deputies and two senators.
However, Democrat Liberal Valentin Iliescu declared that statistical data were not correlated wit
