The Romanian House of Deputies voted on Tuesday a modification for the referendum law, ruling that authorities cannot organize a referendum in the same time with the elections. The modification passed with 164 votes for, 55 against and 2 abstains.

The change allows the government to postpone the European Parliamentary elections if President Traian Basescu intends to organize a referendum regarding the uninominal voting system.

This is not the first time that a referendum law was changed: the law was changed earlier this year so as to give the government the power to set the date of the referendum.

The Democrats drew the attention of the Constitutional Court to the ad-hoc changes and the institution ruled in favor of the President that has the power to set the date of the referendum.

This time, deputies follow the same line but in indirect ways. Namely, even if the President still has the power to set the date of the referendum, the Government is free to postpone any elections until after the referendum was organized.

The real target of the modification is Basescu’s possibility to organize a referendum on the same day of the European Parliamentary elections.