Nov. 24, 2024, 12:19 p.m.
(Photo: PAP/EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT)
On the morning of November 24, the first round of voting in the presidential election began in Romania.
According to Digi24, polling stations opened at 07:00 and will close at 20:00. As of 10:00, more than a million people have already voted, and the turnout has exceeded 7%.
There are 14 names on the ballot, but one of the candidates, former Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, decided to withdraw his candidacy and called on his supporters to support the leader of the center-right opposition Union for the Salvation of Romania (USR), Elena Lascona.
Currently, Klaus Iohannis, a representative of the National Liberals, is the president of Romania. He has been in office for two terms, so he is not eligible to run for election. Under his presidency, Romania has become a key ally of Ukraine, not only by providing training and military equipment, including the Patriot missile defense system, but also by playing a key role in transporting Ukrainian grain and other agricultural goods to world markets.
Polls predict that Romania's leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and the head of the opposition far-right party AUR , Gheorghe Simion, will make it to the second round.
According to Radio Liberty, at the November 18 televised presidential debate, almost all candidates said that Ukraine would have to cede territory to Russia. Elena Lasconi was the only presidential candidate who opposed the idea of Ukraine giving up land, saying that it would encourage Putin to make new conquests.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the two top vote-getters will face off in the December 8 presidential election. In between, Romania will hold parliamentary elections on December 1.
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