[JURIST] The Romanian Constitutional Court [official website] Thursday upheld an opposition-sponsored bill making it easier to remove the country's president by reducing the number of popular votes required for impeachment. Existing legislation requires more than half of Romania's citizens to support removal, making impeachment almost impossible. President Traian Basescu [official website, English version; BBC profile] was suspended [JURIST report] by the opposition-dominated parliament last month for allegedly abusing his powers. Parliament has 30 days to organize a referendum on whether to impeach the president. Given the popularity of Basescu, who was elected in December 2004 and has targeted corruption, the referendum is expected to fail.

Last week the court upheld the suspension [JURIST report] of Basescu and designated Senate President Nicolae Vacaroiu [official website, in Romanian] as the country's interim leader. AP has more.