Court: Referendum to oust Romania president fails

[August 21, 2012]  BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- Romania's constitutional court has ruled that a referendum to whether to impeach the country's president has failed because the minimum voter threshold was not reached.

The Tuesday ruling clears the way for President Traian Basescu to return to his post, the latest twist in a power struggle between a left-wing government and the populist center-right president.

Basescu was suspended by parliament on grounds that he had overstepped his authority by meddling in government business and the country's judicial system.

Augustin Zegrean, chairman of the court said that judges voted by 6 to 3 in deciding that under 50 percent of the electorate had voted in the July 29 referendum.

The court ruled after the government said that electorate had shrunk and thus necessary threshold for the vote had been reached.

[Associated Press]

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