European and local elections 2024 UPDATE

Romania holds European and local elections on the same day.

Newsroom, 09.06.2024, 21:21

ELECTIONS – European and local elections are taking place today in Romania. Almost 19,000 voting stations have been set up in Romania for the country’s around 19 million voters. Voting started at 7 am and will end at 10 pm. By  9 pm, almost 49% of voters had already cast their ballots in the local elections and almost 51% in the European elections. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority, a total of more than 207,000 candidates are running in the local and European elections. The two largest parties in Romania, the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, which are also in government together, have joint candidates for the European Parliament, where Romania is represented by 33 MEPs. The ruling coalition’s main rivals are the United Right Alliance (formed by the Save Romania Union, the People’s Movement Party and the Force of the Right), the populist and ultranationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania. A record 915 voting stations were set up abroad for Romanian voters wishing to cast their ballots for the European elections, mostly in Italy, Spain and Great Britain, countries with large ethnic Romanian communities. Almost 200,000 people had voted abroad by 9 pm, Romania time. The foreign ministry recalls that Romanian citizens who have the right to vote and who reside or are temporarily abroad on election day can cast their vote at any Romanian voting station abroad based on a valid Romanian ID card. It’s a busy election year in Romania in 2024, with presidential and parliamentary elections to come next, in September and December, respectively. (EE)