The election campaign for the first
\nround of the presidential elections ends on Saturday morning. It has overlapped
\nin fact with the political crisis generated by the collapse of Viorica
\nDancila’s Social Democratic government followed by the installation of Ludovic
\nOrban’s Liberal cabinet and has therefore been overshadowed by these events. The
\npresentation of programmes and the debates between the candidates have thus
\nbeen almost non-existent. 14 candidates are in the race for the highest office
\nin Romania. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The incumbent president, Klaus
\nIohannis, is running for a new 5-year term, again supported by the National
\nLiberal Party. The former prime minister Viorica Dancila runs on behalf of the
\nSocial Democrats she leads. Dan Barna is the candidate of the USR-PLUS Alliance;
\nTheodor Paleologu is backed by the People’s Movement Party; and Kelemen Hunor
\nis the candidate of his party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in
\nRomania. ProRomania and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats have joined
\nefforts to support Mircea Dianconu. These are the candidates supported by
\nparliamentary parties, but there are others who represent parties that are not
\nin parliament or who run as independents, namely: Viorel Catarama, from the
\nLiberal Right; Ramona-Ioana Bruynseels from the Party of Humanist Power;
\nCatalin Ivan from the Alternative for National Dignity; Bogdan
\nMarian-Stanoevici as an independent; John-Ion Banu from the Romanian Nation
\nParty; Sebastian-Constantin Popescu from the New Romania Party; Alexandru
\nCumpanasu as an independent; and Ninel Peia from the Party of the Romanian
\nNation. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
This year’s elections have seen a
\nnumber of firsts in terms of organisation. In the Romanian diaspora, where
\nvoters had to wait in long queues in the latest European elections and in the
\nprevious presidential elections, people may now vote all weekend. The voting
\nbegan in fact on Friday at noon and ends on Sunday evening. In each of the
\nthree days, voting can be extended until 11.59 pm at the latest if at the
\nofficial closing time, which is 9 pm, people are still waiting to cast their
\nballots in and outside polling stations. Also as a first, Romanian citizens
\nliving abroad can now vote by post. In order to prevent queues, the number of
\npolling stations has in fact doubled compared with the European elections, to
\nreach 835. The number of polling stations has grown from 50 in the previous
\nEuropean elections to 143 in Spain, from 76 to 142 in Italy, from 25 to 80 in
\nGermany and from 17 to 50 in Great Britain and France. A total of 639 polling
\nstations have been created in the European Union. In Romania, the voting
\nprocess only takes place on Sunday. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The second round is taking place in
\ntwo weeks’ time, on the 24th of November. Electing the president in
\na single round is basically impossible given that in order to win, a candidate
\nneeds the votes of half plus one of the total number of registered voters,
\nnamely 9 million. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanian citizens living abroad have begun voting in the first round of the presidential elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":82875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[30247],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-83621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-elections"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n