UPDATE Change in electoral law under gov't ordinance called PM's concession to PSD barons

Madalina Dobrovolschi, the spokeswoman for President Klaus Iohannis, said on Monday that the change in the electoral law made on Monday under an emergency ordinance to introduce the single-member electoral system for the election of the county council chairs is in fact a concession that the premier wants to make to the "barons" of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to win their support. According to Dobrovoschi, Iohannis believes that to be like changing the rules while the game is on. "PSD has not understood anything of these polls that it has lost in a catastrophic way and it is again resorting to the box with emergency ordinances, trying to change the rule of the game while the game is on, which is unacceptable. The vote of the Romanians should not subject to PSD's disdain. The citizens have made it very clear to them that the practice of emergency ordinances has to stop. This instrument is provided for in the Constitution exclusively for exceptional situations. In no way should it be used abusively and non-transparently. The change in the electoral law made today under an emergency ordinance to introduce the single-member vote system for the election of the chairs of county councils is in fact a concession that Prime Minister Viorica Dancila wants to make to the PSD barons to win their support. Clearly, if the legislation changes as stated by the prime minister, the current county chairs - namely Marian Oprisan, Dumitru Buzatu and Ionel Arsene - would stand to gain. These PSD barons, panicked by the party's downfall in polls, are doing their worst to secure the offices for them, despite the will of the Romanians. This is something that cannot be accepted," Dobrovolschi said at Cotroceni Palace. According to the spokesperson, Iohannis pointed out that a county is not a community with its own identity, and a county council chair must in no way be mistaken for a mayor. "All over the world, the mayor represents the community, and all other forms of organisation are different administrative entities. Moreover, even the Constitution expressly stipulates that the local public administration authorities are mayors, local councils and county councils. The Constitution does not elevate county council chairs to authorities of the public administration, and therefore it is not mandatory or necessary to elect them by a direct vote. The argument put forward by the government - that the county council chairs should be elected by the people - cannot be sustained, because there is no such thing as a people of the county. What's more, the argument hides the despair of PSD, which has understood that it is about to lose the leadership and the majority in very many county councils. Should PSD really be concerned with the proper functioning of the public administrations with rectifying the local elections, the solution is very clear - the adoption of two-round elections for mayors," added the presidential spokeswoman. The government passed an emergency ordinance that provides for the election of the county council chairs by direct voting by the citizens, Deputy Prime Minister Daniel Suciu said on Monday. AGERPRES (RO - author: Catalina Matei, editor: Catalin Alexandru; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)