VIDEO The new AEP president calls for changes to electoral laws and prepares layoffs / The 10 problems he says he found in the institution

The new president of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), Adrian Țuțuianu, who was appointed by the Parliament in November, at the PSD's proposal, organized his first press conference of his mandate on Wednesday. He presented the balance sheet of the 2024-2025 electoral years and explained that he wanted to propose to the Parliament several amendments to the laws, because he found problems in several “thematic areas”. Țuțuianu also said that AEP will be reorganized, which will also mean the dismissal of some people.

The President of AEP explained that since his appointment, he has set up several working groups: one to design a law for the organization and operation of AEP, one to establish the institution's new organizational chart and another to finance political parties. A working group is also to be organized for the elaboration of an “electoral code”, explained Țuțuianu.

“Today we do not have a framework law. We find part of the AEP's attributions in the law of 2015, regarding the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. You will find another part of the attributions in the Law on the financing of political parties and many of the AEP's attributions in various ordinances that are issued on the occasion of the organization of each type of election. An organic, framework law is needed, which more clearly establishes the attributions of the Permanent Electoral Authority, to give the institution's full competence in organizing the elections”, said Adrian Ţuţuianu, on Wednesday, in a press conference, quoted by News.ro.

Asked by the HotNews reporter present at the conference if the working group set up to draft a bill on financing the activity of political parties will also analyze the possibility of reducing the subsidy for parties, Țuțuianu did not give a concrete answer. He said that the subsidy amounts are set by Parliament, not by AEP.

Țuțuianu assures that AEP will save 10% on personnel expenses

Adrian Țuțuianu said, in the context in which the project on reductions in the local and central public administration is in public debate, that regardless of whether the project will be adopted or not at AEP, the reductions will be made. The President of AEP said that, from this point of view, of the savings that must and can be made, he agrees with Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.

“It will mean a reduction in costs by about four million lei. But I want to be very clear that regardless of whether this law is adopted or not, the institution will be reorganized because you asked me before the press conference if I agree with what Mr. Bolojan said. Yes, I agree with many things that Mr. Bolojan said regarding this subject”, Adrian Ţuţuianu said.

He specified that reorganizations will also be made at the territorial level.

“It is not normal to have territorial directorates. I think we can organize ourselves in the territory at the office or service level, depending on some criteria, such as the number of polling stations, the number of voters registered in the permanent electoral list, respectively the size of the county, because one thing is to manage the electoral process in Bucharest, where there are 1,200 voting stations, but they are all gathered here in the city or in Suceava, where even one locality has to you travel about 200 kilometers. Taking into account the three criteria, and others that we will analyze in our internal structures, let's reorganize the territorial structure”, said the AEP president.

At the central level, AEP will reorganize the internal structures, according to Țuțuanu. Asked by HotNews how many people will be laid off as a result of this reorganization, the AEP president said that this is still being analyzed. The deadline for the reorganization of AEP is May, Țuțuianu also said answering HotNews questions.

What problems did Adrian Țuțuianu find at AEP

During Wednesday's press conference, Adrian Țuțianu said that he found “10 thematic areas with deficiencies” for which he will propose legislative changes to the Parliament:

1. The general legislative framework: the legislation is fragmented, unstable and difficult to apply unitarily;
2. Candidacy regime: independent candidacies are insufficiently regulated;
3. Electoral records: local authorities and sometimes the directorates of registration of persons delay some documents and thus the electoral register is hardly updated. Because of this, we still have 14,000 people over 100 years old in the electoral register;
4. Electoral administration: the types of electoral bodies, their constitution rules and their powers differ from one type of election to another. Adrian Țuțuanu claims that a standard practice is needed;
5. Voting procedures: voting hours, voting days, types of electoral lists and the voting procedure differ for each type of election. And here we should have a clearer procedure,
6. Electoral campaign: political advertising outside the campaign is not sufficiently regulated and the electoral quiet period is difficult to apply online.
7. Electoral logistics: the responsibilities regarding the provision of electoral materials, the endorsement of ballot papers and the organization of logistics are unevenly regulated,
8. Recording and centralization of results: there is a need to standardize minutes and speed up the centralization of results, according to the AEP president.
9. Contravention regime: in certain situations, certain acts cannot be sanctioned due to the termination of the activity of the competent bodies.
10. Conflicts of legal norms: there is a need to clarify the duties of the county electoral offices and repeal some redundant or contradictory norms.

Asked by HotNews when he will make concretely public all the legislative amendments that he will propose to the Parliament, Adrian Țuțuianu explained that priority will be given to the organization and operation regulation of the AEP, followed by proposals for legislative amendments for identified problems. All this will be proposed to the Parliament during April, May and June, said Adrian Țuțuianu.

Almost 134,000 people between the ages of 90 and 99 in the Electoral Register

“We have in the Electoral Register, between the ages of 80 and 89, about 734,195 people, I say approximately because the number changes almost daily, there are people who died or people who left the Electoral Register, who were forbidden the right to vote and be elected. A situation that needs to be corrected is that of those over 90, between 90 and 99 years old, 133,995 people in the Electoral Register. I suspect that many among these people are actually no longer alive, but they were not processed in the registry because we did not have the necessary elements, i.e. they are not registered according to the law, civil status documents, death certificates and a situation that was commented on in the electoral context”, declared the president of AEP.

He stated that there are over 14,000 people over 100 years old in the Electoral Register.

“Over 100 years, there are 14,410 people in this register, obviously almost the majority of them are deceased and we will have to find the documents that justify their deletion from the electoral register. This requires a collaboration with the town halls and the specialized structures of the Ministry of the Interior”, according to Țuțianu.

The AEP president also said that it was only an isolated case where someone went to vote with the identity card of a person who, theoretically, was 126 years old. This happened by mistake, because the person in question had not handed over his father's ballot to the authorities at the time of his death, and on voting day instead of taking his ballot, he took the deceased father's ballot, AEP officials explained.

How much did the last elections cost: the presidential ones, over 300 million euros

On Wednesday, Adrian Ţuţuianu also presented the cost of the elections held in 2024 and 2025:

“We collect data from all institutions, so here you will also find staff costs, but you will also find the costs of voting abroad and other such things. The election of local public administration authorities and the European Parliament cost us 249,763,800 euros. The election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies cost 119,952,588 euros. The election of the President of Romania, in 2024, 147,000,000 euros and in 2025 160,982,962 euros”.

“In the European parliamentary elections, 26 euros per voter in the country and 45 euros per voter abroad. In the presidential elections of 2025, the cost is 14 euros in the country and 20 euros abroad. In principle, we have double costs for voting from abroad, compared to the number of voters present at the polls”, explained the AEP president.

Țuțuianu also mentioned how much it cost to print the ballots: “For the presidential elections of 2025, the printing of the ballots cost 1,900,000 euros. For the presidential elections of 2024, 1,794,000 euros, for parliamentary elections 6,578,000 euros and for local elections, 5,451,000 euro”.

“If we refer to the amount of paper we consume in an election, 1,502,544 kilograms of paper in local and European parliamentary elections, one million kilograms in parliamentary elections, 216,501 kilograms in presidential elections, of paper. Costs, because this is reflected in the costs, in presidential elections 330,635 euros, and in local and European parliamentary elections, it cost two million euros the paper for printing ballots”, Adrian Ţuţuianu also declared.