To expedite its work, each people's council established an executive committee as its chief administrative organ and a number of permanent committees to which it assigns specific responsibilities. The executive committee, consisting of a chairman, two or more deputy chairmen, and an unspecified number of other members, functions for the duration of the council's term of office. Each of the people's council executive committees also has a secretary, who is appointed with the approval of the next higher ranking council and is considered an employee of the central government rather than of the local executive committee itself. The chairman of executive committees in the cities, towns, and communes are officially considered the mayors of these units. The executive committees are responsible to the people's council that elected them as well as to the executive committee of the next higher council.
The executive committee meets whenever necessary and is required to convene at least once a month; full council sessions are held every two months on the city, town, and commune level and every three months on the county level. Responsibilities of the executive committees include the implementation of laws, decrees, and decisions of the central government, the carrying out of the decisions made by the people's councils, the working out of the local budget, and the drafting of the local economic plan. The executive committee is also charged with the direction and control of the economic enterprises within its area of jurisdiction and with the exercising of supervision over the executive committees of the councils inferior to it. The executive committees are also responsible for the organization and functioning of public services, educational institutions, medical programs, and the militia.
THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM
According to the 1965 Constitution, all power belongs to the working people joined in a worker-peasant alliance; power is exercised through the people's representative bodies—the Grand National Assembly and the several levels of people's councils. Theoretically, these bodies are elected by, controlled by, and responsible to the working people. Emphasis is placed on the direct participation of the citizens through their local people's councils, party units, and chapters of the mass organizations (see ch. 9).
Although the Constitution asserts the right of all citizens eighteen years of age and older to participate in the election of all representative bodies on the basis of a universal, direct, equal, and secret vote, it does not determine how elections are to be organized or specify who is responsible for conducting them. The Constitution does declare, however, that the right to nominate candidates belongs to the PCR, as well as to all labor unions, cooperatives, youth and women's leagues, cultural associations, and other mass organizations. Citizens who have reached the age of twenty-three are eligible to be candidates for elective office.
Separate legislation provides for general elections to be held every four years and local communal elections to be conducted every two years. Elections are organized under the direction of the Socialist Unity Front, the national entity that incorporates the country's numerous mass organizations under the leadership of the PCR (see ch. 9). All candidates for elective office must have the approval of the front in order to be placed on the ballot, a requirement that ensures that no candidate unacceptable to the front's leadership will be placed in nomination.
The Socialist Unity Front was officially established in November 1968 as a replacement for the People's Democratic Front, which had existed since the Communists began to organize effectively in the country during World War II. The Socialist Unity Front lists among its member organizations, in addition to the PCR, the labor unions; cooperative farm organizations; consumer cooperatives; professional, scientific, and cultural associations; student, youth, women's, and veterans' organizations; religious bodies; and representatives of the Hungarian, German, Serbian, and Ukrainian minorities. At the time of its formation, Ceausescu was elected as the front's chairman, and Ion Gheorghe Maurer, the prime minister, was named as first vice chairman. Both continued in these positions in early 1972.
General elections were conducted by the Socialist Unity Front in March 1969. Official results indicated that ballots were cast by 99.96 percent of the country's 13,582,249 eligible voters. Of the votes cast, a reported 99.75 percent were marked in favor of the single list of Socialist Unity Front candidates. Although the great majority of the candidates for the Grand National Assembly who were placed on the ballot belonged to the PCR, some non-members gained front approval and were elected. Nearly half of the candidates elected were newcomers to the assembly and included forty-one Hungarian, twelve German, and nine other minority representatives. The front has scheduled the next general elections for 1973.