Voting in the first round of the presidential election will take place in Romania on November 24. According to opinion polls, the left-wing Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Cholaku, and the head of the far-right opposition party, AUR, George Simion, are in the lead.
Points of attention
- In Romania, the first round of presidential elections is held on November 24, with Colaku and Simion in the lead.
- This is the ninth presidential election after the Romanian revolution of 1989.
- Russia can interfere in elections through financial intermediaries, Romania is under supervision to prevent interference.
- The police are investigating the criminal conduct of bots and trolls in social networks in favor of certain candidates.
- Romanian MPs called for an investigation into possible interference by Russia, China and North Korea through cyber attacks.
What is known about the presidential elections in Romania
As noted, the polling stations opened at 07:00 and will work until 21:00 local time.
More than 19 million voters are registered in the country, about a million of them live abroad. Voting for them started on November 22. In total, almost 19,000 polling stations were opened.
14 candidates are represented in the ballots of the first round. However, one of them, former Prime Minister Ludovic Orbán, withdrew his candidacy, calling for support from Yelena Lasconi, leader of the center-right Union for the Salvation of Romania (USR).
According to the results of the polls, the main contenders for victory are left-wing Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku and the leader of the far-right opposition party AUR, George Simion, who is suspected of ties to Russia.
This is the ninth presidential election in Romania after the 1989 revolution. During this time, the country had four presidents: Ion Iliescu, Emil Constantinescu, Traian Basescu and Klaus Iohannis. Iohannis, who held the position for two terms, is not running in this year's election.
How the Russian Federation is trying to influence the presidential elections in Romania
According to the publication, Russia is using proxies, intermediaries and organizations associated with Russian funding to influence the election and possibly presidential candidates, but the names of the candidates have not been disclosed.
Sources emphasize that every citizen of the Russian Federation in Romania is under surveillance, and the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) closely monitors any activity that threatens Romania's alliance with the EU and NATO.
In addition, Romanian MPs called for checks on the possible involvement in the intervention of countries such as Russia, China and North Korea, in particular through cyber attacks on state institutions.
The Minister of Digitization of Romania announced the activity of networks of bots and trolls in social networks that support certain candidates or political programs. Because of these actions, the police opened a criminal case.
