Romania’s lower chamber of parliament, the Camera Deputatilor, on Tuesday adopted a long-awaited law banning some former Communist officials from holding office.

The law, passed with 167 votes in favour while opposition lawmakers were absent, bans any former Communist dignitary and senior public servant, including prosecutors, from holding or running for public offices for five years once the law is promulgated.

The ban also covers police chiefs and deputy police chiefs and commanders of political detention centres. It also obliges all the current high-ranking officials to declare within 30 days after its enforcement if they held such positions between 1945 and 1989.

After adoption in the Chamber of Deputies, the law now only needs to be promulgated by the country’s President. The upper chamber of parliament, the Senate, previously adopted the lustration law in 2006.

The vote has evoked little enthusiasm among those who have been waiting for more than 20 years for such a measure.

“It is too little, too late, as the law has more of a symbolic role. But at least it brings moral reparation to the victims to the former regime,” Teodor Maries, leader of an organization of victims of the Communist regime, said.

Former president Ion Iliescu, who held important positions within the Communist Party until 1984, harshly criticised the law. “Such an initiative is abnormal and useless,” he said.

However, Iliescu, now 82, risks only losing his chairmanship of the 1989 Romanian Revolution Institute if the law takes effect.

Many Romanians remain ambivalent about the recent past. A recent survey shows that nearly half of the population believe life was better during the Communist era, with a higher standard of living and job security given as the main advantages.

Less than a quarter of Romanians believe that life has improved in the two decades since the overthrow of former communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu.