Romania has a new election law

The proportional representation system will again be used, after being replaced in 2008 with the uninominal voting system.

Over-sized, inefficient and far from properly representing voters this is how Parliament is perceived by public opinion in Romania.

The inadequate, sometimes even abusive interpretation of the principle of parliamentary immunity has also largely contributed to this negative image.

Something had to change, so the new law will replace the uninominal voting system with proportional representation.

Without guaranteeing an improvement in the quality of Parliament's members, the new system will at least result in a reduction in the number of MPs to 466 from 588.

Fewer senators and deputies, a reintroduction of the proportional representation system and keeping the 5% minimum threshold are the main provisions of the new election law, a bill supported by all parliamentary groups.

The Social Democrat MP Gabriela Podasca argues that proportional representation, which will be used in the 2016 elections, is the most representative, simple and fair election system:

"The number of seats you get in Parliament now depends on the number of votes you get, provided you reach the minimum threshold. We will now be able for the first time to gather exact data as to the number of Romanian citizens living abroad and we'll know how many polling stations we need to set up", Gabriela Podasca said.

The number of MPs to represent Romanian citizens living abroad, whose upper limit is 6, has in fact been the major area of disagreement between the leftist majority and the Liberal opposition. The Liberal MP Victor Paul Dobre:

"We believe the number of seats allocated to the diaspora is insufficient to represent the people living and working in various countries in the world, in particular the European Union", Victor Paul Dobre said.

The vote of the Romanians living abroad has entered public agenda in the aftermath of last autumn's presidential elections.

The bad management of the voting process abroad, when many people had to wait in never-ending queues, has generated massive public discontent and possibly even cost the Social Democrat Prime Minister Victor Ponta the presidential race.

Under the new election law, the Permanent Electoral Authority will be responsible for holding the parliamentary elections and a computer system will be introduced to monitor voter turnout and prevent fraud.