NATO's Geoana: Voting system in Romania is the most primitive in the entire Europe

The voting system in Romania is the most primitive in all of Europe, NATO deputy secretary general Mircea Geoana said on Saturday at the Romanian Students' Congress, which took place at the Parliament Palace.

"Involvement in the life of the city, changing the destiny of our nation for the better is not done only by participating in the vote. It is done by involvement and permanent pressure on the political decision-makers. Because if you voted for X or Y or Z , regardless of your political preference, the moment you put the stamp on that name... By the way, the voting system in Romania is the most primitive in all of Europe. There is no country in Europe where you have ballots that are not serialized, you don't know who printed them and, automatically, often you don't know who counts them," he said.

In his opinion, Romania "doesn't want or can't - usually it's a combination of the two - neither wants nor can deeply democratize voting."

"Voting by mail, electronic vote... what is this? I don't know how to protect the data? Let's be serious, we have IT people among the best in the world," added the official.

He urged those present to constantly hold their representatives accountable.

"The problem is that after you have elected someone, your obligation and responsibility are not transferred to the shoulders of the person you voted for. (...) Hold them accountable, ask them where the money is spent, do petitions," said Geoana.

He also referred to the reluctance of young people to enter politics.

"You say you want to do politics and automatically a kind of anticipatory suspicion starts," he pointed out. But, in his opinion, "there is no other profession in the world where you can make change except through politics, there is nothing else."

"Neither Bill Gates, with his foundations, nor the largest president of an international or national company, no one can change things as deeply as a responsible political man or woman does," added Geoana.

The deputy general secretary of NATO also referred to the space where the Congress of Students from Romania took place. "A building that, I admit, it did me quite a lot of good not to visit it in the past 15 years," he described the Palace of the Parliament.