In Romania, the first round of presidential elections started on November 24, 2024. Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time and will be open until 21:00. In total, more than 19 million voters are registered for the elections, of which about a million live abroad. About 19,000 polling stations were opened for voting.
This year, 14 candidates are competing for the post of president of Romania, among which the leaders of political parties stand out. In particular, the former Prime Minister of Romania, Ludovic Orban, who was also one of the candidates, withdrew his candidacy and called to support the leader of the center-right opposition party Union for the Rescue of Romania (USR), Yelena Lascona. According to the results of the latest sociological polls, the leaders of the race are the current Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Čolaku, and the leader of the far-right opposition party AUR, George Simion, who has come under suspicion of ties to Russia.
These elections were the ninth since the 1989 revolution that ended the communist regime in Romania. In the past 35 years, the country has had four presidents: Ion Iliescu, Emil Constantinescu, Traian Basescu and Klaus Iohannis, who cannot run in this election due to the limits set by the Romanian Constitution (two terms in office).
