November 25, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 25.11.2024, 20:00
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Călin Georgescu, running independently for president of Romania, has surprisingly won Sunday’s first round of the presidential election, with 22.94% of the votes after counting 99.94% of the ballots. Second comes Elena Lasconi, the leader of Save Romania Union, with 19.17% of the votes, followed by the head of the Social Democratic Party and PM Marcel Ciolacu with 19,16%. He is followed by the president of AUR party, George Simion (13.87%) and the Liberal leader, Nicolae Ciuca (8.79%). The turnover was over 52%, with more than 821,000 Romanian nationals voting abroad. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority, the largest number of valid votes cast abroad went to Călin Georgescu (43.35%), followed by Elena Lasconi (26.82%) and George Simion (12.07%). The former NATO deputy secretary general, Mircea Geoană, and the Liberal Nicolae Ciucă were voted for by less than 5% of those who went to the polls, while Marcel Ciolacu was elected by less than 3% of the Romanians in the diaspora. There were 13 candidates in the presidential race, 9 backed by political parties and 4 independents. The second round of the presidential elections will take place on December 8. On December 1, Romania’s National Day, general elections will be held, after on June 9, local and European parliamentary elections were also organised in Romania.
RESIGNATION Romania’s prime-minister Marcel Ciolacu announced his resignation as leader of the Social Democrats over the poor results in the first round of the elections for president of Romania. Ciolacu failed to reach the decisive round, having lost to the candidate of the Save Romania Union, Elena Lasconi, by several thousand votes. Ciolacu congratulated the two candidates who qualified for the second round and announced that his party will not challenge the results, because the importance of the decisive round on December 8 is much greater than personal interests. He also said he would stand by his colleagues until after the parliamentary elections due next Sunday, and that he would not run for any party position after that. The MEP Victor Negrescu is now the interim party president. The Liberals, the governing partners of the Social Democrats, are facing a similar situation. The party leader Nicolae Ciucă, who also serves as speaker of the Senate, resigned following the presidential election results, where he came in fifth place. He called on traditional parties to “keep Romania united.” Ciucă said that the Liberal Party “is aware of the mistakes it has made and will fight to the end for Romania to remain a free and democratic country.”
DIASPORA The first round of the presidential election came to a close at 7 AM in all the polling stations abroad, the Romanian foreign ministry announced. The last polling stations to close were in Vancouver, Canada, and on the US West Coast. Voters were able to cast their votes as early as Friday. The foreign ministry has set up 950 polling stations abroad for the presidential and parliamentary elections this year. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority, 821,703 Romanians cast their votes abroad, 817,476 on additional lists and 4,227 by post.
REFERENDUM Bucharest residents were invited on Sunday to cast their votes in a local referendum called by the mayor general, Nicușor Dan. The referendum passed the 30% participation threshold. Preliminary results indicate the majority response to the three questions was “Yes”. 67% of respondents agreed that construction permits be issued by the Bucharest City Hall alone, 64% voted in favor of the City Hall Council approving the budgets of the City Hall and local districts, while 82% voted in favor of creating a program designed to fight drug use in schools. The referendum needs to be first confirmed by parliament.
CHINA China has eliminated visa requirements for Romanian nationals over November 30, 2024 – December 31, 2025. The Romanian foreign ministry welcomed the decision, and said the measure will help facilitate the mobility of Romanian citizens, expanding the scale of person-to-person contacts. Visas will be lifted for citizens travelling for business, tourism, visiting or transiting China. (AMP)
