Pro-western mayor Dan takes early lead in presidential election runoff

Pro-western centrist politician Nicusor Dan has taken an early lead in Romania’s presidential election runoff, preliminary data suggests.

Mr Dan, the incumbent mayor of Bucharest, is taking on hard-right nationalist George Simion in a vote that could determine the geopolitical direction of the Nato member country.

The vote was held months after the cancellation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades.

After 2.8 million votes had been counted, Mr Simion was ahead by a whisker with 50.09%, while votes for Mr Dan stood at 49.91%, according to official data.

When voting closed at 9pm (7pm UK time), 11.6 million people – or about 64% of eligible voters – had cast ballots, according to official electoral data.

About 1.64 million Romanians abroad, who have been able to vote since Friday at specially set-up polling stations, participated in the vote.

After polls closed on Sunday, Mr Dan told the media that “elections are not about politicians” but about communities and that in Sunday’s vote, “a community of Romanians has won, a community that wants a profound change in Romania”.

“When Romania goes through difficult times, let us remember the strength of this Romanian society,” he said. “There is also a community that lost today’s elections. A community that is rightly outraged by the way politics has been conducted in Romania up to now.”

Turnout was significantly higher in Sunday’s runoff and is expected to play a decisive role in the outcome. In the first round on May 4, final turnout stood at 9.5 million, or 53% of eligible voters.

Romania’s political landscape was upended last year when a top court voided the previous election in which far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow denied.

Standing on the steps of Romania’s colossal Communist-era parliament building after polls closed, Mr Simion predicted a significant victory over his opponent, which he called a “victory of the Romanian people”.

Mr Simion said that Mr Georgescu was “supposed to be the president” before last year’s election was annulled. He also called for vigilance against election fraud, but said that overall he was satisfied with the conduct of the vote.

Shortly after 6pm, Romania’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson Andrei Tarnea said in a post on X that the election was subject to a “viral campaign of fake news” on the Telegram messaging app and other social media platforms, which tried to influence the electoral process and had “the hallmarks of Russian interference”.

Networks of co-ordinated disinformation have emerged as a pervasive force throughout Romania’s entire election cycle. Romanian authorities debunked the deluge of fake news, Mr Tarnea said.

Mr Simion appeared alongside Mr Georgescu at a Bucharest polling station on Sunday and told reporters that he voted against the “humiliations to which our sisters and brothers have been subjected”.

“We voted against abuses and against poverty,” he said. “I voted for our future to be decided only by Romanians, for Romanians and Romania. So help us God.”