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Prime Minister Ludovic Orban claims, in the scandal over voting-by-mail problems, that it is possible that some foreign Romanians who received the envelope “forgot to vote” or gave up on going to the polling station. He also said that in Romania, after December 3, several hundred envelopes with votes arrived in Romania by mail, which, according to the law, cannot be considered valid.
- “Some may have forgotten to vote or may have given up their right to vote after expressing it, saying they are going physically. Many of those who asked to vote by mail asked to vote.” “In many countries where we have a large Romanian diaspora, there was a peak of the pandemic and they were probably afraid, because they did not know if they could physically go to the electoral college, they asked to vote by mail.” Ludovic Orban, on Saturday night, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He pointed out that to be validated, the envelope with the vote had to arrive before December 3, at midnight, and any envelope received afterwards was considered invalid.
- “The deadline to send the envelope was set for December 3, so if someone cannot validly vote by mail, either by the postal service of the country where they are located, or because they may have sent the envelope too late, or because – another cause – to allow him to exercise the right to vote physically. That is the reason for the law, “said Orban, noting that the law must be reformed, in the sense of imposing a term in which citizens who vote for this way they can transmit the envelope with the vote.
According to the prime minister, there are “a few hundred” envelopes with votes cast that arrived after December 3 and cannot be considered valid. “They receive from the diplomatic mission that the vote is not valid and, in addition, they also receive the recommendation that they can exercise their right to vote by attending the voting table,” added the prime minister.
He specified that they expressed their intention to vote by mail to more than 39,000 citizens, of which there were 35,000 valid applications, and 21,000 envelopes reached their destination:
- Regarding the envelopes that have been validated, in the diplomatic missions there are more than 3,000 valid envelopes with the valid vote cast, and the envelopes that have arrived in the country, which are assumed by Romanian Post, are around 18,000. So they are in total about 21,000 and some votes of 35,000.
- Here the Romanian Post must provide you with the information: several hundred envelopes arrived with the votes cast, which arrived after December 3. They cannot be considered valid because the law says so. This is the legal provision and, as such, neither the Post Office, nor the AEP, nor the electoral office of the electoral colleges abroad, can decide anything other than the law. Precisely because the vote was not valid, they were also informed of the possibility to vote physically, provided that the vote is not considered valid.
- In certain situations, it may be due to the postal service of the respective country that, who knows, in pandemic conditions, they may have had a canceled flight. We could not foresee such an exceptional situation that could delay the movement of the voting envelopes. AEP said that the Romanian Post must present to the BEC exactly what the situation is: how many envelopes arrived, at what time and how many envelopes arrived after December 3. That is the situation that will arise. “
