Candidates running in the upcoming presidential election
A complete list with the candidates admitted for the presidential election in May will be made public on March 20th
Ştefan Stoica, 17.03.2025, 14:00
The Central Election Bureau and the Constitutional Court worked around the clock during the weekend on candidacy files for the presidential election on May 4th and 18th.
Saturday, March 15th, was set as the deadline to submit candidacies but the validation process, which involves the study of the files and the potential challenges has not been completed yet. The definitive list with the names on the ballots will be known on March 20th. All the future protagonists of the presidential race have passed all the legal and constitutional filters.
Authorities are now keenly monitoring the process in an attempt to avoid surprising results like in December, when the pro-Russia extremist Calin Georgescu emerged as winner of the first round of the presidential election.
The election was later canceled by the Constitutional Court, also known as CCR, because of Georgescu, a favourite of Moscow’s and the beneficiary of its interference in the election process. Under the court’s ruling Georgescu can no longer run in the election but he has a political heir, the ultranationalist and populist leader of AUR Party, George Simion.
After the election failure he suffered in 2024, Simion wouldn’t have risked another election adventure, which could have jeopardized his position as a party leader, but he had to join the race after the elimination of his ideological mentor.
The country’s former Prime Minister and PSD leader, Victor Ponta, who is an admirer of the new US president, is also trying to win votes in the so-called sovereignist area. Ponta also ran in the 2014 election when he lost to Klaus Iohannis. Ponta got excluded by his party after contesting a Social-Democrat decision to join their ruling partners PNL and UDMR and support Crin Antonescu.
The former Liberal chief, whom the self-tiled sovereignists have dubbed the system’s main candidate, is running for the pro-European wing.
This isn’t Antonescu’s first attempt to win the highest position in the state. He came third in the presidential race of 2009 and didn’t make it to the finals. The European wing also has two strong candidates, the independent mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, and the USR president, Elena Lasconi.
Dan announced his intention to run in the presidential election, after the political and constitutional seism caused by the toxic apparition on the political stage of Calin Georgescu. He criticized the institutions which through negligence and incompetence allowed that to happen. Elena Lasconi, who would have taken on Georgescu in the second round, has a similar discourse.
Commentators and even the supporters of the democratic camp suggest that she should have given up candidacy in favour of Nicusor Dan, who stands better chances to join a second round. However, Lasconi declared herself a fighter with real chances to make it to the finals.
(bill)
