The first round of Romania’s presidential elections concluded with the surprising but very narrow victory of the independent and pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu over the current prime minister, the social democrat Marcel Ciolacu, with whom he will face in the second round in two weeks.
According to the count of 88% of the votes, Georgescu received less than one percentage point more than Ciolacu, with 21.99% and 21.53%, respectively.
These results mean that they will be the two candidates who will participate in the second round of elections to be held on December 8.
As a first reaction, the Romanian press speaks of “a tremendous surprise” and “unexpected results.”
With his radical ideas and pro-Russian statements “he was able to achieve a surprising result in the first round while remaining practically invisible to the main media,” says the Transtelex.ro portal about Georgescu, adding that the candidate’s campaign was carried out on the networks. social networks, including TikTok.
“I want to thank all Romanians who voted today. It was a clear sign that Romania is a strong democracy and I am glad that the vote took place without serious incidents,” Ciolacu said on the social network Facebook after the closing of the electoral colleges.
Georgescu stated at the close of the polls that the elections were “an astonishing awakening of conscience,” according to the digital newspaper Digi24.ro.
The two candidates who lost the most in the first round were the far-right candidate George Simion and the liberal-conservative Elena Lasconi, both with 15%, who before the elections seemed to be competing for second place.
Between the first and second rounds (on December 8) of the presidential elections, the legislative elections are also held in Romania, which will take place in a week.
Almost 9.5 million Romanians, or just over 52% of the 18 million Romanians eligible to vote, went to the polls today, which was a slightly higher turnout than 5 years ago.
These are the ninth elections of the head of state since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the so-called “December Revolution” (1989).
The president-elect will replace the current head of state, the liberal Klaus Iohannis, who held the position for 10 years.
The day was marked by a series of complaints of irregularities and incidents and the Ministry of the Interior promised to investigate more than 300 cases.
