Senate Rejects Two-Round Local Election Bill in 56-48 Vote
The Senate rejected the AUR-initiated bill for two-round elections on Tuesday. The proposal aimed to reintroduce two rounds for mayors and county council presidents. AUR, Pace-Întâi România, and USR supported the bill, while PSD, PNL, and UDMR opposed it. The bill received 48 votes in favor and 56 against, with one abstention. The proposal now moves to the Chamber of Deputies, the decisional body.
The Romanian Senate rejected a bill on Tuesday that would have restored two-round elections for mayors and county council presidents, a system abolished in 2012. The measure, initiated by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), failed by 56 votes to 48, with one abstention, according to the official Senate vote tally.
The proposal would have required candidates to secure more than 50 percent of votes in a first round to win outright. Failing that threshold, the top two candidates would advance to a second round held two weeks later.
AUR senators cast 25 votes in favor of the bill, according to the electronic vote record. USR contributed 16 votes, Pace-Întâi România five, and two unaffiliated senators supported the measure. PSD senators cast 33 votes against, PNL 12, UDMR eight, and three unaffiliated senators opposed.
AUR parliamentarians argued in the bill's explanatory memorandum that the current single-round system "showed its limits" and fails to serve local community interests. The party contended that single-round voting is not specific to Romanian political culture.
Robert Cazanciuc, a PSD senator, told the plenary session that the single-round system better suits local authorities. "The relationship between the citizen and the politician is correct in the first round, because there the person chooses the good manager," Cazanciuc said. A second round, he added, introduces political transactions that may not reflect the best interests for community administration.
The bill now advances to the Chamber of Deputies, which serves as the decisional body on the measure. Romania used a two-round system for local elections until 2012, when Parliament switched to the current single-round format.
The vote split along predictable lines. PSD, PNL, and UDMR—the three parties that form the current governing coalition—voted as a bloc against the measure. AUR, USR, and the smaller Pace-Întâi România, all opposition forces, backed it.
No senator from the governing coalition crossed party lines. The single abstention came from an unaffiliated member, per the electronic record.
AUR has made electoral reform a recurring theme since entering Parliament in 2020. The party argues that the single-round system, introduced under a PSD-PNL agreement in 2012, allows candidates to win with narrow pluralities in fragmented fields. Under the pre-2012 rules, a candidate needed an outright majority—either in the first round or in a runoff—to claim office.
USR, which has supported two-round voting in past legislative sessions, voted in favor despite its broader rivalry with AUR on other policy fronts. The party has not issued a public statement on Tuesday's vote.
Cazanciuc's floor remarks reflected the governing coalition's position that the current system produces clearer mandates. PSD and PNL have defended single-round voting as more efficient and less costly than a two-stage process. UDMR, the junior coalition partner, has historically aligned with PSD and PNL on electoral procedures.
The bill's failure in the Senate does not end its legislative journey. Under Romanian parliamentary procedure, the Chamber of Deputies will now take up the measure. If the Chamber approves it, the bill would return to the Senate for reconsideration or advance directly to promulgation, depending on the final vote margin.
No date has been set for the Chamber debate. The lower house holds 330 seats, compared to the Senate's 136. PSD, PNL, and UDMR together command a majority in the Chamber, making passage unlikely unless the coalition's position shifts.
The two-round system was in place from Romania's first post-communist local elections in 1992 until 2012. During that period, runoffs were common in major cities, where no candidate typically secured a first-round majority. Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, and Iași all held second rounds in multiple election cycles.
Parliament adopted the single-round format in 2012 under a bill co-sponsored by PSD and PNL, then in opposition to a center-right government. Proponents at the time argued the change would reduce election costs and shorten campaign periods. Critics, including civil society groups, warned it would allow mayors to win with less than 30 percent of the vote in crowded fields.
That concern has materialized in several cases. In the 2020 local elections, multiple mayors in mid-sized towns won with under 35 percent, according to data from the Permanent Electoral Authority. The fragmentation was most pronounced in localities with four or more serious candidates.
AUR's bill does not address county council or local council elections, which would remain under proportional representation. The measure applies only to single-seat executive races: mayors and county council presidents.
Pace-Întâi România, a small party formed in 2024, has no prior legislative record on electoral reform. Its five votes in favor marked the party's first recorded position on the issue.
The Chamber of Deputies is expected to take up the bill in the coming weeks, though no committee hearing has been scheduled. Under standing rules, the Chamber's legal affairs committee will review the measure and issue a report before a floor vote.
If the Chamber rejects the bill, it dies. If the Chamber approves it, the Senate would reconsider under a procedure that allows the upper house to override its initial vote with a two-thirds majority—a threshold the bill's supporters did not approach on Tuesday.
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