A mayor convicted in the first instance of electoral fraud escapes the charges by prescribing the facts

The former mayor of Ciorani commune (Prahova county), Marin Voicu, convicted in the first instance for instigating the falsification of electoral documents in the 2020 local elections, escapes punishment after the court found that the facts were time-barred. Subordinates and accomplices of the former mayor, also found guilty in the first instance, for election fraud, escape punishment also as a result of the statute of limitations, informs News.ro.

“Remove the sentencing order as well as the measures and obligations imposed on the defendant Marin Voicu. Based on article 396 paragraph (6) Criminal Procedure Code with reference to article 17 paragraph (2) Criminal Procedure Code and article 16 paragraph (1) letter f) Criminal Procedure Code related to article 154 paragraph (1) letter d) Criminal Code with the application of article 5 Criminal Code, with reference 155 paragraph (1) of the Constitutional Court Decisions No. 297/2022 and in accordance with the Decision of the Supreme Court of Justice No. 67/2022, the criminal proceedings initiated against the accused Marin Voicu for committing the crime of falsification of electoral records are terminated. (20 material documents), as a result of the intervention of the prescription of criminal liability”, is the final decision pronounced, on Tuesday, by the Ploieşti Court of Appeal in the file that has as its object the falsification of electoral documents and records.

By the same sentence, several accomplices of the former mayor, found guilty, in the first instance, of election fraud, escape punishment because the statute of limitations for criminal liability has expired.

In the first instance, the Buzău Court sentenced Marin Voicu to two years in prison with execution, prohibiting him from holding public positions for three years after the execution of the sentence.
The former mayor was re-elected in the 2024 election, although he was referred to justice in several criminal cases.

Marin Voicu also has a suspended sentence in a case in which he was sent to court for ordering the theft of ballot bags that were evidence in the election fraud case in which he just escaped punishment as a result of the statute of limitations. He was left without a warrant following the case in which he was convicted.

Prosecutors' accusations

According to the statements of the prosecutors in front of the court, in Ciorani the elections were rigged at all five polling stations set up in the commune, and the defendants acted “naturally” and even laughed at what they were doing.

Regarding the way in which the elections would have been rigged, the investigators presented to the court a list of the ways in which the defendants would have acted. Thus, the recording cameras equipped with the STS tablets in the voting stations were either blocked, some of the members of the voting commission sitting in front of them “at the moments of interest”, or the focus area of ​​the camera was changed, so that it did not record the activity of the commission members. In addition, ballots stamped in the name of one party were simply transferred to another.

Among the defendants were several City Hall employees, and four of those indicted in this case admitted the facts and signed plea agreements.

In February 2021, bags containing more than 4,300 ballot papers from the local elections in the Ciorani commune disappeared from the Courthouse. It is about 4,306 ballots, of which 2,454 validly cast and void ballots and 1,854 canceled ballots. These constituted evidence in a file aimed at the fraud of the local elections in Ciorani, elections won with record scores, for several mandates by Marin Voicu, mayor who switched from PSD to PNL and back to PSD.