September 27, 2019 UPDATE

Central Electoral Bureau announced the final list of candidates in Novembers presidential election

Newsroom, 27.09.2019, 20:00

ELECTION The Central Electoral Bureau Friday announced the final list of candidates in Novembers presidential election in Romania, which comprises 14 people. On Saturday the Bureau will draw lots to set the order of the candidates on ballots. October 12 is the first day of the campaign, the first round of the election is scheduled for November 10, and the decisive round on November 24. According to a government resolution, the Romanians living abroad will be able to vote between November 8 and 10 in the first round, and between November 22 and 24 for the runoff.

BREXIT As many as 433,000 Romanian nationals are officially residing in Britain, but the number is very likely higher, the head of the Office for Brexit with the Romanian Foreign Ministry Adina Bădescu said on Friday at a roundtable on the impact of Brexit, organised by the European Parliament office in Romania. She explained that at present Romanians make up the second largest foreign community in the UK. So far, the Romanian official added, 187,000 Romanian citizens have applied for post Brexit status. The British government has repeatedly promised that the rights of European citizens will be protected after the country leaves the EU.

VISAS Romanian citizens may be granted multiple-entry tourist visas for Saudi Arabia, valid for one year, the Ambassador of this country to Bucharest, Abdulaziz Al Aifan said on Friday. He explained that Romania is one of the 38 European countries, out of a total of 49 states worldwide, included in a first stage of Saudi Arabias opening up to foreign tourists. According to AFP, Saudi Arabia announced on Friday that it would issue tourist visas for the first time, in an attempt to diversify its sources of revenue, which rely exclusively on oil extraction at present.

MOURNING The Embassy of France in Romania will open an online book of condolences on its home page, for those who wish to pay tribute to the former president Jacques Chirac, who died on Thursday aged 86. President Emmanuel Macron declared national mourning on Monday, when the flags of the French Embassy in Bucharest will also fly at half-mast. France is mourning Jacques Chirac, a statesman, a great European and friend of Romania, a country that he visited several times, especially for the Francophonie Summit of 2006, reads a Facebook post of the French Embassy in Romania.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)