Romania's Constitutional Court set to decide on president impeachment

PanARMENIAN.Net - Romania's Constitutional Court was expected to rule on Tuesday, Aug 21, that a referendum to impeach suspended President Traian Basescu is invalid - a decision that would return him to office and could prolong his power struggle with the Prime Minister, Reuters reported.

The battle pitting Basescu against Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who has led the campaign to unseat the president, is testing democracy in Romania two decades after the overthrow of communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu.

The crisis has stalled policymaking, sent the leu currency to record lows and raised concern in the European Union, which accused Ponta of undermining the rule of law and intimidating judges in the country that has long been criticized for corruption and weak justice.

Parliament suspended Basescu in a decision backed by Ponta's leftist Social Liberal Union (USL) last month.

In the July 29 referendum, 88 percent of those who cast ballots voted to impeach Basescu - but only 46 percent of registered voters took part, fewer than the required threshold of 50 percent of the electorate.

The Constitutional Court will rule on the validity of the vote in a politically-charged decision that was originally due on August 2 but was postponed.

The court started deliberations at 0700 GMT on Tuesday and will inspect revised voter lists after coming under pressure by the government, which says turnout may have been sufficient if data from a 2011 census were used and more than 3 million people who have died or live abroad were taken off the lists.