The President of Romania

• Author: Catalin-Silviu Sararu
• Profession: PhD, is Associate Professor at the Law Department of Bu-charest University of Economic Studies
• Pages: 133-141

Chapter XV

The President of Romania

1. Election and mandate of the President of Romania

Election of the President of Romania. The election of the President is

regulated by art. 81 of the Constitution and of the Law no. 370/2004 for the elec-

tion of the President of Romania1.

According to the provisions of art. 81 of the Constitution the President of

Romania is elected by universal, equal, direct, secret and freely expressed vote.

The candidate who declared, in the first round, the majority of votes of the voters

registered in the electoral lists is declared elected. In the event that none of the

candidates has met this majority, a second round of elections shall be organized,

between the first two candidates established in the order of the number of votes

obtained in the first round. The candidate who obtained the highest number of

votes is declared elected.

No person may perform the office of President of Romania except for a

maximum of two terms. These can also be successive.

The person who cumulatively fulfills the following conditions may apply

for the office of President of Romania:

- has reached the age of at least 35 years until the day of the elections

including [Article 37 (2) of the Constitution];

- has Romanian citizenship and domicile in the country [art. 16 (3) of the

Constitution];

- it is not forbidden to associate in political parties, according to art. 40

paragraph (3) of the Constitution2;

- he has not previously been elected twice as President of Romania [Ar-

ticle 81 (4) of the Constitution].

The elections will be organized under the conditions provided by the Law

no. 370/2004.

At the elections for the President of Romania, candidates proposed by

political parties or political alliances, constituted according to the Law of political

parties no. 14/20033, as well as independent candidates. Political parties and alli-

ances can only propose one candidate. The member parties of a political alliance

1 Republished in the Official Gazette, Part I no. 650 of September 12, 2011, as subsequently

amended.

2 According to the provisions of art. 40 paragraph (3) of the Romanian Constitution, republished

"The Constitutional Court judges, the people's lawyers, the magistrates, the active members o f the

army, the police and other categories of civil servants established by organic law may not be part

of political parties."

3 Republished in the Official Gazette, Part I no. 408 of June 10, 2015.