Pro-European Romanian presidential candidate Nicusor Dan © INQUAM Photos / Alex Nicodim
Although the counting of votes was still underway, after some 96% of the ballots had been processed, Nikushor Dan’s lead over his opponent, nationalist Djordje Simion, was sufficient to declare him a mathematical victory. The number of votes remaining to be counted by midnight was less than the difference between the two candidates of nearly 900,000 votes.
A total of 11,641,866 citizens at home and abroad participated in voting in the second round of Romania’s presidential election. All “pro-European” forces united around the candidacy of Nicusor Dan, the mayor of Bucharest, who acted as an independent candidate in the first round, in the second round. This gave the necessary result – by the time of his mathematical victory, he had 54.1% of the votes cast, while his opponent Giorghe Simion had 45.9%.
Simion, as in the first round, received the majority of Romanian diaspora votes – 54.96% voted for him and 45.04% for Nicusor Dan (the counting of diaspora votes will continue until the morning).
At the same time, when Nicusor Dan’s victory was still far away, his supporters blocked Elizabeth Boulevard in Bucharest and chanted “We have a president!” in front of the Cismigiu Hotel, where the headquarters of the centrist candidate is located.
At the same time, supporters of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), from which Simion is running, consider the election rigged. And when the difference in votes with Nicusor Dan grew to about 700,000 votes, AUR appealed to its supporters: “National protest tomorrow morning!”.
