Bucharest (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Calin Georgescu leads Romania’s presidential race with 22%, followed by PM Marcel Ciolacu at 21%.
A far-right candidate Calin Georgescu took the lead in Romania’s presidential election and will probably confront leftist PM Marcel Ciolacu in a runoff in two weeks. Calin Georgescu, who ran independently, topped the polls with about 22% of the vote after about 93% of votes were counted, while PM Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic party, or PSD, followed at 21%. Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party, or USR, stood at approximately 18%, and George Simion, the head of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, got almost 14%.
According to the Central Election Bureau, after polls closed, 9.4 million people around 52.4% of eligible voters had cast votes. The president functions for a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in domains such as national security, foreign policy and judicial assignments in the European Union and NATO member countries. A second round will be carried out on 8 December 2024, as no candidate gained an absolute majority in the first round.
It will be the ninth presidential election held in post-revolution Romania. As the Romanian Constitution permits a president to be re-elected only once, the incumbent, Klaus Iohannis, first elected in 2014 and then re-elected in 2019, is not qualified for re-election. His second (and last) term will formally be concluded in December 2024.
As reported by sources, Calian Georgescu ran independently and was not widely known. He exceeded most local surveys, sending shockwaves through Romania’s political establishment as he climbed to pole position. After casting his ballot, Georgescu stated “For the unjust, for the humiliated, for those who feel they do not matter and matter the most … the vote is a prayer for the nation.”
Romania shares a 650-km boundary with Ukraine and since Russia struck Kyiv in 2022, it has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain via its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided military aid, including the assistance of a Patriot air defence battery.
