With over 94 percent of the votes counted, George Simion, of the ultra-nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) has won the first round of the Romanian presidential election by nearly 40 percent.
With over 3.3 million votes or nearly 40 percent, George Simion is in first, followed by the joint candidate of the governing coalition parties, Crin Antonescu, with 1.7 million votes, or 20.94 percent, and independent candidate Nicușor Dan in third place with 1.6 million votes, or 20.12 percent.
According to Mandiner, if Crin advances to the second round, he may have a chance at winning the post of president, with Nicușor less likely to prevail.
Simion won almost all of Romania, except areas of Szeklerland where many ethnic Hungarians live. In Harghita, Mureș, Covasna, Satu Mare and Bihor counties, Crin Antonescu is in first place, while Nicușor leads in Cluj-Napoca county with 95 percent.
The second round of the Romanian presidential election will be held on May 18.
The original first round was annulled last December by Romania’s Constitutional Court, citing foreign interference and illegal campaign financing that undermined the fairness of the election and the equal opportunities of the candidates. The move was sharply criticized as anti-democratic.
The winner of that first round, independent Călin Georgescu (previously of the AUR) was disqualified after the top court ruled, with no evidence, that Russia backed Georgescu’s candidacy.
Moscow has denied any involvement; however, after Georgescu was banned from running again in March, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news conference, “Any election held without him will be illegitimate. The will of the Romanian people has been suppressed.”
At the time, George Simion, president of AUR, announced a parliamentary strike on social media, declaring that all AUR MPs would cease attending parliamentary meetings, calling Georgescu’s disqualification “an attack on democracy.”
After the Romanian Constitutional Court rejected the appeal of the ruling by the Central Electoral Bureau, Simion posted on X: “Today, the masters have decided: no equality, no liberty, no fraternity for Romanians. Long live France and Brussels, long live their colony named Romania.”
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