Presidential election 2024 / PHOTO: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The Court of Appeal of Bucharest has definitely rejected the request of the organization of the Forum of Experts to allow the presence of independent observers during the recount of the vote, he writes. Free Europe.
The NGO had obtained a favorable decision at the Court. The counting of votes in the first round of the presidential election continues throughout the country, but AEP believes that it is unlikely to be finished by December 2, when the Constitutional Court is expected to decide whether or not to validate the election .
Depending on the minute according to the sentence given on Saturday, November 30 by the Court of Appeal of Bucharest, the request for which the Forum of Experts contests in court the decision of the Central Electoral Office (BEC) not to allow the presence of independent observers during the recall of the votes are “unfounded”.
At first instance, at the Ilfov Court, the civic organization had won the case.
The Forum of Experts, as well as other NGOs accredited as independent observers in the first round of the presidential elections on November 24, criticized the decision of the BEC not to allow observers to attend the recount.
How does the BEC justify that independent observers cannot participate in the recount of the vote
BEC HE SAYS that the Government Emergency Ordinance (GEO) 98/2024 shows that the electoral offices of the polling stations have completed their activity, and the counting of the votes is done by the “superior hierarchical electoral office” , i.e. from the county electoral offices, which is also provided for in the Regulation on the organization and operation of the electoral offices established for the election of the President of Romania in 2024.
The representatives of the institution say that in Law no. 370/2004 and in Law no. 208/2015 “The categories of people who can attend on the day of the vote to the operations carried out by the electoral offices of the polling stations are expressly mentioned, among them are accredited people, respectively internal observers, designated by associations or foundations, international observers and representatives of foreign media institutions”.
“We find the decision of the BEC not to allow the access of independent observers to the votes to count the votes hallucinatory,” said the organization Funky Citizens, in a short message published Thursday evening on social networks.
They accused the fact that such a sentence “calls into question the whole process of counting the votes”.
“Now was the time of maximum transparency”, consider the representatives of civic organizations.
