December 14 (SeeNews) - Romania's Social Democratic Party (PSD), the winner of December 11 general election, said it won't attend consultations with president Klaus Iohannis over the appointment of a prime minister until the new parliament convened and final results of the vote were announced.
"We can not go into consultations with President Iohannis because we want to respect the Constitution. Once the new parliament will be in place, we will attend consultations with all openness," PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said in a statement broadcast by local TV station Digi 24 late on Tuesday.
Iohannis suggested earlier on Tuesday that he will not name the PSD leader as prime minister due to Dragnea's two-year suspended jail sentence for a referendum fraud in 2012. Iohannis strongly stated that he will take into account integrity criteria in the process of appointing Romania's new prime minister.
Centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE), seen as a likely ally of PSD in forming a coalition government, also said on Digi 24 they refuse to attend consultations with the president.
Klaus Iohannis commented in a televised statement that PSD and ALDE demonstrated an impolite attitude.
"I do not know what they are hoping to get, but I think that they are wrong," Iohannis said.
The moral criteria announced by the president are backed by a 2001 law which says that a person sentenced on charges of a criminal offense cannot be part of the government. The law could be challenged in the country's Constitutional Court but no moves in that direction have been made so far.
Under Romania's constitution, the president must name the prime minister from the political party, which has won the majority of seats in parliament in elections, or hold consultations with all parties represented in parliament, if no such majority was created. Both the prime minister and his cabinet must be approved by the newly elected MPs in a vote of confidence. MPs can reject a proposed government line-up up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
According to almost final data from Romania's electoral commission (BEC), no party has won absolute majority, so the president called all six parties that entered parliament for consultations starting Wednesday. Final election results are expected to be announced by the end of the week.
PSD won 45.5% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 45.71% of the votes for the Senate in Sunday's elections.
ALDE won 5.62% of votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 6% of the votes for the Senate, which makes it the fifth biggest party in Romania's new parliament.
Right-wing PNL will be the second biggest force in parliament after winning 20.04% support for the Chamber of Deputies and 20.42% for the Senate, but the result was poor compared to expectations. On Tuesday, PNL named the head of its Sibiu city branch, Raluca Turcan, as interim leader following the resignation of Alina Gorghiu.
Centre-right Save Romania Union (USR) party came in third with 8.83% of votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 8.88% for the Senate.
The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) garnered 6.19% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 5.62% of the votes for the Senate.
Centre-right Popular Movement Party (PMP) got 5.34% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 5.64% for the Senate.