The second round of presidential elections has begun in Romania

Romanian voters began voting in the second round of the presidential election at 7:00 a.m. on May 18, choosing between Romanian far-right nationalist Gheorghe Simion and centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan.

Meanwhile, HotNews reported that as of May 17, twice as many voters abroad, where voting began at 10 p.m. on Thursday and will continue until 9 p.m. on Sunday in all countries where the diaspora resides, had cast their ballots as of May 17 as during the first round.

Romania is at a crossroads between democratic values and new political challenges. On May 4, the first round of the presidential election was held in the country for the second time. Before the May 18 vote, the situation is ambiguous and very important for Ukraine. Read more in Intent's material from the series " Electoral Systems of the World".

The first round of the presidential elections in Romania, which took place on May 4, was won by the leader of the far-right Romanian party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), Gheorghe Simion, and the liberal mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan.

George Simion was supported by 3 million 862 thousand 404 Romanians, and Nicușor Dan by 1 million 979 thousand 711.

The AUR party, whose leader is Simion, opposed the provision of weapons to Ukraine and categorically denied the transfer of Romanian Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv, and George Simion has already promised that if he is elected president, Romanian Prime Minister Kelin Georgescu, who was disqualified after violations in the presidential election earlier this year, will become Prime Minister of Romania.

It should be noted that due to statements about territorial claims to Ukraine and Moldova, George Simion is banned from entering these countries. The territorial claims of a number of Romanian political forces to Ukraine relate to the Odesa region and Bukovyna, which for some time were part of Romania, but after 1940 were transferred to the Soviet Union and later became part of independent Ukraine.

In March, the Romanian Central Electoral Bureau decided to reject the candidacy of Kelin Georgescu in the presidential election, which caused a clash between his supporters and local law enforcement.

The Constitutional Court of Romania then decided to cancel the results of the first round of the presidential election held on December 1. The winner of the first round, Kelin Georgescu, criticized the court's decision, calling it a coup d'etat.

Кирило Бойко