(1) The Central Electoral Bureau shall have the following duties:

a) it shall carry out the enforcement and unitary interpreting of the provisionsof the present law; it shall undertake the publication in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, of the list with the name and the electoral signs of the political parties, political alliances, electoral alliances and organisations of citizens belonging to national minorities duly established, entitled to participate in the elections;

b) it shall ascertain the enforcement of the conditions of substance and form provided for in this law with respect to candidatures;

c) it shall notify the admitted candidatures to the county electoral bureaux,to the electoral bureaux of the Bucharest Municipality districts, as well as to the electoral bureaux of the polling stations abroad, and it shall make them public through public broadcasting services;

d) it shall settle the objections referring to its own activity and the petitionswith regard to the activity of the county electoral bureaux, the electoral bureaux of the Bucharest Municipality districts, and of the electoral bureau of the polling stations abroad; the petitions shall be solved by decisions that are mandatory to the electoral bureau in question, as well as to the public authorities and institutions to which they refer, under the sanctions provided for by this law; in the event that, in order to settle an objection or a petition, actual checks are necessary, such checks shall be carried out in the presence of a judge from the Central Electoral Bureau; however, such checks shall not be carried out on the reference date;

e) it shall ascertain, on the basis of the communications received from theelectoral bureaux of lower level whether there are political parties, political alliances, electoral alliances and organisations of citizens belonging to national minorities that reached the electoral threshold referred to in Article 51 (1), and independent candidates that reached the electoral quotient referred to in Article 51 (2), and shall make public, within 24 hours of its finding, the list of the political parties, political alliances, electoral alliances and organisations of citizens belonging to national minorities that reached the electoral threshold and of the independent candidates that reached the electoral quotient;

f) it shall receive from the county electoral bureaux, from the electoralbureaux of districts, and from the electoral bureau of the polling stations abroad, the statements of poll referred to in Article 50; it shall centralise the number of validly cast votes for each political party, political alliance, electoral alliance, organisation of citizens belonging to national minorities, and independent candidate that meet the condition referred to in point e) and sees to the distribution and allotment of mandates;

g) it shall annul the elections result in case it establishes that the poll or thatthe ascertaining of the elections result has taken place by fraud liable to modify the allotment of the mandates, and it shall order the ballot to be repeated in the polling stations where such fraud has been found;

h) it may order the recount of the votes in a polling station or therecentralisation of the votes and of the election result in a county, district, or in the polling stations abroad, in case it establishes, on the basis of the proofs produced, that there have been committed errors, or that have been found discrepancies between the data registered in the statements of poll;

i) it shall organise and implement a system for data collecting and forinforming periodically the public opinion about the presence of population to the poll, on the basis of a representative population sample at county and national level;

j) it shall send to the Permanent Electoral Authority, after the publicationof the elections results in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, the materials required to edit the White Book of the elections.

(2) The Central Electoral Bureau shall carry out any other duties stipulatedin the present law.

(3) The application for the annulment of the elections for reasons ofelectoral fraud may only be submitted by the political parties, organisations of citizens belonging to national minorities, political or electoral alliances thereof that took part in the elections as well as by the independent candidates. The application shall be submitted to the Central Electoral Bureau within 24 hours after the voting is closed, under the sanction of forfeiture. The application shall be based on solid grounds, and accompanied by the relevant proofs. The lack of proofs entails the application’s rejection. The application may be admitted only if it has been liable to modify the allotment of the mandates. The application for the annulment of the elections by the Central Electoral Bureau shall be settled within 48 hours at the most of the registration thereof. Within 10 days at the most of the date the application for the annulment of the elections is admitted a new ballot shall be organised in the polling stations where the fraud was found. The county electoral bureau, the district electoral bureau of the Bucharest Municipality or the electoral bureau of the polling stations abroad, and the local public authorities or, where appropriate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall ensure the conduct of the new ballot in good conditions. The ballot shall be organised only in the polling stations where the fraud was found, based on the electoral rolls used, and under the appropriate enforcement of the provisions of the present law. Electoral operations regarding vote counting and ascertaining of results shall be suspended until the new results are obtained.

(4) After the resolution of the applications for the annulment of the electionresults for reasons of electoral fraud, and the centralisation of elections results, the Central Electoral Bureau shall validate the elections and see to the publication of the elections result in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I. Within 48 hours of the publication of the elections result in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, the Central Electoral Bureau shall cease its activity.

(5) In exercising the duties incumbent upon it as provided by this law, theCentral Electoral Bureau shall adopt decisions and orders. The Central Electoral Bureau’s orders shall be passed for a unitary interpretation of this law, and are generally binding. The Central Electoral Bureau’s decisions shall be taken both for the uniform implementation of the provisions of this law, and the solving of objections and petitions, which fall under its competence. The Central Electoral Bureau’s decisions are mandatory for all authorities, public institutions, electoral bureaux, as well as for all the bodies with duties in electoral matters. The decisions shall be brought to public knowledge by posting and by any other publicity means, and the orders shall be published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I.