Deputy proposes fines or jail for electoral lies

Politicians who make promises during the electoral campaign but fail short to live up to them should be either fined or jailed, lib-dem deputy Mircea Giurgiu believes. He intends to submit a law draft to be introduced in the Penal Code in this sense in the beginning of the parliamentary session, according to news agency Mediafax.

The deputy considers this measure to be necessary, in the context where, in every electoral campaign, „a politician may promise anything in order to be elected, without respecting his promises later. There will be a new article introduced in the Penal Code, addressing the lies from the electoral campaign that mislead a person on the occasion of elections who would not have elected a certain candidate in the absence of this error. The punishment is prison from six months to four years or a fine between 1,000 to 5,000 lei.

Mircea Giurgiu said that a politician subject to such a conviction would not be allowed to run for another mandate. „My belief is that, 20 years after the Revolution, politicians should be responsible for what they declare. We need to take the matter further by incriminating any form of lie, including the electoral lie”, Mircea Giurgiu concluded.