USR demands the dismissal of Toni Grebla from the leadership of AEP

The parliamentary groups of the USR demand the dismissal of Toni Greblă from the position of president of the Permanent Electoral Authority, after the Constitutional Court decided to annul the presidential elections.

“The President of the Permanent Electoral Authority is appointed by Parliament and, according to the principle of symmetry of forms, can also be revoked by Parliament, so we urgently request the convening of the Permanent Joint Bureaus of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, so that this request can be put on the agenda and resolved favorably,” states a draft resolution submitted by the USR to Parliament.

“We consider that there are sufficient grounds for carrying out the revocation of the current President of the Permanent Electoral Authority,” states the USR, reasoning that the independent candidate Călin Georgescu “violated the electoral legislation regarding campaign financing for the presidential elections.”

They give the example of the fact that Georgescu declared zero lei in the electoral campaign, although the declassified documents from the CSAT meeting show that payments of hundreds of thousands of euros were made to support him. The role of the AEP is to verify the campaign expenses of the candidates, the USR parliamentarians remind.

“Obviously, the fact that the Permanent Electoral Authority was able to receive the declarations of a competitor reporting 0 lei invested in the presidential election campaign indicates serious deficiencies of the Permanent Electoral Authority in exercising its control powers. We rightly raise the question – what trust can voters have in an institution that does not self-refer for 0 campaign expenses?“, the document states.

USR also recalls that, following the CCR decision, “The Prosecutor General’s Office self-referred ex officio regarding undeclared campaign expenses, as well as other associated electoral offenses” and that 50,000 people signed a petition demanding the dismissal of Toni Greblă.

“We emphasize that the president of the Permanent Electoral Authority undermines citizens’ trust in the electoral process in particular and in democratic mechanisms in general. Considering the above, the parliamentary groups of the Save Romania Union submit to you the Draft Decision of the Romanian Parliament on the revocation of the President of the Permanent Electoral Authority for debate and adoption”, the document also states.