Global Initiative to Enfranchise People with Disabilities: Romania

Global Initiative to Enfranchise People with Disabilities: Romania - www.electionaccess.org Text Only Version

Romania

General Right to Vote
Constitution
(1991, as amended 2003)

Article 36, section (1) states, “Every citizen having turned eighteen up to or on the election day shall have the right to vote.”

Electoral Law
The following electoral laws all repeat the above provision of the constitution...

Law on the Elections for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate (Article 3, section 1)
Law on the Election of the President of Romania (Article 1, section 2)
Law regarding the organization and the development of the elections for the European Parliament (Article 5, section 5)
Law for the election of local public administration authorities (Article 3, section 1)

Specific Inclusion of People with Disabilities
Electoral Law
Law on the Elections for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate
(2008)

Article 46 states: "Disabled persons shall enjoy special protection. The State shall provide the accomplishment of a national policy of equal opportunities, disability prevention and treatment, so that disabled persons can effectively participate in community life, while observing the rights and duties of their parents or legal guardians.”

Exclusion Based on Intellectual Disability
Constitution
(1991, as amended 2003)

Article 36, section (2) states, “The mentally deficient or alienated persons, laid under interdiction, as well as the persons disenfranchised by a final decision of the court cannot vote.”

Electoral Law
Law on the Elections for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate
(2008)

Article 3, section (5) states, “Mentally defective or alienated people, laid under an interdiction, or the persons convicted of the loss of the electoral rights, by final judgement, shall not have the right to vote.”

Law regarding the organization and the development of the elections for the European Parliament
(2007)

Article 5, section (6) states, “The person suffering from mental deficiencies and insanity under interdiction and the persons who, on the election day, are condemned by final judgment to the loss of electoral rights do not have the right to vote.”

Law for the election of local public administration authorities
(2004)

Article 5, section (1) states, “The following people may not elect: a) mentally retarded or insane people, who are laid under an interdiction

Voter Assistance
Electoral Law
Law on Elections for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate
(2008)

Article 42, section (21) states, “The elector who, for grounded reasons, found by the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station, is not capable to vote by himself shall have the right to call a companion he chooses in the booth in order to get help. This companion may not be chosen from among the observers or members of the electoral bureau of the polling station.”
Article 65, section (1) states, “The Permanent Electoral Authority shall discharge the following main duties in the time lapse between two electoral periods...n) elaborating programmes and setting integrated rules in keeping with the cast of vote by illiterate or disabled persons, and ensuring their popularism.”

Law regarding the organization and the development of the elections for the European Parliament
(2007)

Article 19.4, section (8) states, “The presence of any person in the polling booth, other than the one who votes, is forbidden. The elector who, for well grounded reasons which are ascertained by the president of the polling station electoral bureau, cannot vote by himself/herself, has the right to be accompanied within the polling booth by a person chosen by him/her to help him/her. This person must not be one of the observers or one of the members of the polling station electoral bureau.”

Off-Site Voting
Electoral Law
On Elections for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate
(2008)

Article 42, section (22.1) states, “For the electors who cannot be transported on grounds of illness or invalidity, the president of the electoral bureau of the polling station may approve, following their written request, accompanied of the copy of medical documents or other official documents attesting the fact that the respective persons cannot be transported, that a team formed of at least 2 members of the electoral bureau goes, with a special ballot box and with the material needed for the vote...to the place where the elector is in order to carry out the vote.

Law regarding the organization and the development of the elections for the European Parliament
(2007)

Article 19, section (1) repeats the provisions of Article 42, section (22.1) from the electoral law On Elections for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Law for the election of local public administration authorities
(2004)

Article 83 repeats the provisions of Article 42, section (22.1) from the electoral law On Elections for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.