The plenum of the Senate passed Thursday, with 75 votes to 7, and 3 abstentions, an amendment to the Referendum Law that will simplify the procedure of dismissing the president, i.e. with the simple majority of those who vote in the referendum. Senators also voted with 75 to 8, 3 abstentions, the report they received from the Legal Committee. The amendment was initiated by PSD Senator Severin Georgica and PNL Deputy Pieptea Cornel. The draft act modifies the acting law, which provides the possibility to remove from office the president of Romania with majority of voters present on electoral lists. This draft law is correlated with an amendment to the law of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), which exempts from CCR control the decisions made by the Parliament. Both initiatives are meant to simplify the procedures of impeaching and removing Traian Basescu.
