December 21 (SeeNews) - Romania's left-wing Social Democrat Party (PSD), which won the December 11 general election, and coalition partner centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) on Wednesday proposed former regional development minister Sevil Shhaideh for prime minister.
If appointed, PSD member Sevil Shhaideh would be Romania's first female prime minister and will replace incumbent technocrat head of government Dacian Ciolos.
The proposal was made during consultations with president Klaus Iohannis, who now has to consider the nomination.
"We have come up with a solution that I hope will be accepted so that a government will be in place quickly to ensure we have a budget draft approved by January 15," PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said in a televised statement broadcast by local TV station Digi 24.
Shhaideh, 52, has been a PSD member since July 2015. She graduated from the Academy of Economic Sciences, Faculty of Economic Planning and Cybernetics, in 1987. During May-November 2015, she served as minister of regional development in Victor Ponta cabinet. She is currently a state secretary at the same ministry, a post she occupied from 2012 to May 2015 and to which she returned in November 2015.
Also, she is the president of the National Association of Public Administration (ANIAP) since 2000, according to data from her CV posted online.
On Monday, PSD and ALDE signed a government coalition agreement, which gave the two parties majority in parliament and the right to propose the new prime minister.
The agreement to establish the Governing Coalition for Development and Democracy spans four years and defines the proportional distribution of portfolios in the new government.
PSD and ALDE will control among themselves 250 of 465 seats in the new parliament.
PSD won 154 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (out of 329) and 67 in the Senate (out of 136), according to data from Romania's electoral bureau, BEC. ALDE won 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 9 in the upper house, which makes it the fifth biggest party in the new parliament.
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. Both the prime minister and his cabinet must be approved by the newly elected MPs in a vote of confidence. The MPs can reject a proposed government line-up up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
On Tuesday, PSD and ALDE refused to 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.
Iohannis earlier suggested that he will not name the PSD leader as prime minister due to Liviu 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.
"I had a legitimate right to ask to be prime minister of Romania. For me, the law is not a secondary matter. A profoundly unjust conviction and an unconstitutional law does not give me the right to have this function. For now," Dragnea said, suggesting that he might consider assuming the post once the legislative barriers are removed.