Romanian citizens are being called to the polls to elect the future president, for a mandate of five years on Sunday (Nov. 24, 2024) and on 8 Dec. 2024 if no candidate receives an absolute majority of the vote and all the members of Parliament (MPs and senators) on Dec. 1, 2024. For the first time since 2004, the two elections will be held in the same year.
Fourteen people are in the running to replace Klaus Iohannis, who has been President since first elected in 2014. The outgoing head of State, who is completing his 2nd term in office, is not eligible for another candidacy, as the Romanian Constitution allows a President to be re-elected only once.
Presidential election
Candidates
Ten presidential candidates are being put forward by political parties and four are running as independents. Of the 14, only two will go through to the second round. The order on the ballot was announced by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) on Oct. 10. The list is led by Elena Lasconi and includes:
Elena-Valeria Lasconi (Save Romania Union, USR). The mayor of Campulung Muscel was born in 1972 in Hateg. She is running under the slogan “ A Romania for all not only for some’.
George-Nicolae Simion (Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, AUR). Simion is deputy in the Romanian Parliament and President of the AUR. He was born in 1986 in Focsani. His electoral slogan is ‘ We make history through courage’.
Ion-Marcel Ciolacu (Social Democratic Party, PSD). The outgoing Prime Minister, was born in 1967 in Buzau. He is running under the slogan ‘Vision for the nation’.
Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca (National Liberal Party, PNL). The President of the Romanian Senate, Ciuca was born in 1967 in Plenita, Dolji. He is running under the slogan “With honour and faith in the service of the country”.
Hunor Kelemen (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, UDMR). Kelemen, was born 1967 in Cira, Harghita. He is a deputy and president of the UDMR and is running under the slogan ‘Respekt for everybody’.
Mircea-Dan Geoana (independent). The former deputy secretary general of NATO, was born in 1958 in Bucharest. He is running under the slogan ‘ Vision.Respect’.
Ana Birchall (independent). Birchall was born in 1973 in Mizil, Prahova. She is a lawyer and is running under the slogan ‘We build Romania of trust’.
Alexandra-Beatrice Bertalan-Pacuraru (Alternative for National Dignity Party). Born in 1987 in Galati, Pacuraru is the co-founder and national coordinator of the Alternative for National Dignity Party. She is running under the slogan ‘Romania rises with dignity’.
Sebastian-Constantin Popescu (New Romania Party, PNR). Born in 1982 in Bals, Olt county, Popescu is the president of the PNR. His electoral slogan is :’ A president in the service of Romania’.
Ludovic Orban (Force of the Right FD). Orban was born in 1963 in Brasov. He is an MP and president of the Forta Dreptei FD party. He is running under the slogan ‘Honest with the Romanians’.
Note: Orban withdrew on Nov. 18 to support Elena Lasconi
Calin Georgescu (independent). Born in 1962 in Bucharest, Georgescu is an associate professor at the University of Pitesti. His electoral slogan is: ‘ Remake Romania’.
Cristian Diaconescu (independent candidate). Born in 1959 in Bucharest, Diaconescu is a lawyer and is running under the slogan: ‘President for respected Romania’.
Cristian-Vasile Terhes (National Conservative Party, PNCR). Terhes is an MEP in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. He was born in 1978 in Zalau. His electoral slogan is “Faithful to the Romanian Nation”.
Silviu Predoiu (National Action League Party, PLAN). Born in 1958 in Bucharest, Predoiu was a former foreign intelligence officer. He is running under the slogan ‘You deserve a president at your service!
The presidential election campaign began on Oct. 25 and will end on Nov. 23. If a second round is required, the campaign for that will begin no later than Nov. 29 at 00:00 and end on Dec. 7.
UPDATE 24/11/2024 17:45
President Klaus Iohannis urged Romanians on Sunday (Nov. 24) to go to vote for the election of the new head of state. “Everyone should go to vote!,” he said after casting his vote in Bucharest for the presidential elections.
Romania’s political system is similar to that of France, where the president is the head of state, the commander-in-chief and represents the country abroad. The president names the prime minister, based on the results of the parliamentary elections.
By 17:00 a total of 7.470.899 voters had cast their ballots, representing 41,48% of the number of registered voters, according to real-time data provided by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP). In urban areas, 4.385.404 voters turned out to vote, while in rural areas, 3.085.495 voters cast their ballots.
Voting by Romanians abroad, who can influence the result began on Friday (Nov. 22). A total of 227,678 voters had cast their ballots in the diaspora by 9:00 AM on Sunday (Nov. 24) AEP data showed.
“Romanians vote in presidential election focused on high living costs, Ukraine war” writes Reuters. Opinion surveys show Marcel Ciolacu will make it into the run-off vote on Dec. 8, with George Simion the likely runner-up.
Ciolacu, whose PSD has dominated Romanian politics since the end of the Cold War, is a supporter of Romania’s EU and NATO membership and strongly supports Ukraine in its war against Russia. He said that if elected one of his biggest goals was “to convince Romanians to stay or return home” to help rebuild the country. Romania has a large diaspora spread throughout EU countries.
George Simion, whose AUR first entered parliament in 2020, opposes sending further military aid to Ukraine – a country with which Romania shares a 650-kilometre border- and says he would support peace efforts by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Simion has also campaigned for unification with neighboring Moldova.
“The outcome is still very difficult to predict due to the high concentration of candidates and the splitting of the centre-right vote,” Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, told the news agency.
UPDATE 24/11/2024 19:17
By 19:00 a total of 8.827.310 voters had cast their ballots in the first round of the presidential elections, representing 49.01% of the number of registered voters, according to real-time data provided by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP). In urban areas, 5.217.197 voters turned out to vote, while in rural areas, 3.610.113 voters cast their ballots.
UPDATE 24/11/2024 21:12
Marcel Ciolacu looked set to win the most votes in the first round of a presidential election, with 25% support, followed by Elena Lasconi with 18%, according to the exit-poll Avangarde-Center for International Research and Analyses (CIRA). Calin Georgescu and George Simion were at 16% and 15% of the vote. The preliminary results could still change as votes come in. The second round will take place Dec. 8 following Romania’s parliamentary election next Sunday.
UPDATE 24/11/2024 22:42
Marcel Ciolacu secures 1st position with some 23.2%, followed by Calin Georgescu with 21.79%, George Simion with 15.51%, Elena Lasconi with 12.31%, Nicolae Ciuca with 9.92%, Kelemen Hunor with 8.26% and Mircea Geoana with 4.67%, according to AEP data, after the centralization of over 45% of minutes.
UPDATE 24/11/2024 23:01
Marcel Ciolacu took the lead gaining 22.65% of the vote, followed by Calin Georgescu (22.16%), George Simion (15.27%), Elena Lasconi (13.79%) Nicolae Ciuca (9.78%), Kelemen Hunor (6.45%) and Mircea Geoana (5.23%) according to AEP data, after the centralization of over 65% of the minutes from the country.
UPDATE 25/11/2024 11:18
RESULTS OF FIRST ROUND OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
Calin Georgescu won the first round of the presidential elections in Romania with a score of 22.94%, followed by Elena Lasconi with 19.17% after the centralization of over 99.95% of the minutes from the country, according to AEP data.
Georgescu said in a post on Facebook that he voted “For the unjust, for the humiliated, for those who feel they do not matter and actually matter the most … the vote is a prayer for the nation.” Lasconi wrote on Facebook after the results came in : “Your vote was . . . for your future and that of those you love. I promise to do my best to live up to your expectations.”
Calin Georgescu CV: Master’s degree at the Faculty of Land Improvement and Environmental Engineering (1986) and a doctorate in Pedology (1999) at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest, following studies in national security and defence at the National Defense College (2007). He is a university professor and international consultant on sustainable development, who worked for different United Nations organizations for more than a dozen years.
Elena Lasconi CV: The two-term mayor of Campulung and former journalist, Lasconi graduated from the Pedagogical Highschool ‘Sabin Dragoi’ in Deva (1990), the BBC Television School (1999) and ASE Bucuresti as licensed economist in Tourism and Commerce Management (2001). She attended courses in the domain of harmonization, legislation, European Funds regulations in Romania and in Brussels.
UPDATE 25/11/2025 17:48
The Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) having fully centralized all 20,059 minutes of the first round of the presidential election announced vote count completed. The situation after the final count is as follows:
After polls closed, 9.4 million people – just over 52% of eligible voters – had cast their ballots, according to data from the AEP. The Romanian diaspora played a crucial role in the first round of the presidential elections. Over 800,000 Romanians living abroad cast their votes – a record turnout. Sunday’s results are one of the biggest surprises in post-1989 Romania’s elections, with the leaders of the two largest parties, the Social Democrats and centre-right Liberals – which are in a coalition government – eliminated in the first round. The second round of the presidential election will take place on Dec. 8.
UPDATE 25/11/2024 17:58
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced his resignation as the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) after failing to advance to the second round of the country’s presidential election. At a press conference, Ciolacu confirmed he will remain in the caretaker role until the upcoming parliamentary election, which will be held on Dec. 1.
UPDATE 28/11/2024 15:32
The Constitutional Court of Romania requested on Thursday that the Central Electoral Bureau recount the valid and invalid votes from the first round of the presidential elections. The court’s decision comes after conservative presidential candidate Cristian Terhes, who got 1% of the votes, challenged the ballot’s result. At the same time, the CCR rejected a petition by candidate Sebastian Constantin Popescu to annul the results, citing late submission of the request. The constitutional court is due to reconvene on Friday (Nov. 29) at 2:00 pm. There were 9.46 million votes cast in the election.
UDPATE 29/11/2024 18:48
Romanian Prime Minister and PSD candidate in the presidential elections Marcel Ciolacu announced his withdrawal from the presidential race regardless of vote recount result. The CCR postpones for Monday (Dec. 2) debates on request to cancel first round of voting.
UPDATE 02/12/2024 19:45
The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) rejected the request of presidential candidate Cristian Terhes to cancel the results of the first round of voting, with the second round to be held on December 8.
Parliamentary Elections
Romanians are casting their votes to elect a new government and prime minister and determine the formation of the country’s legislature comprising the 323-seat lower house and the senate (133 seats).
Thirty one political parties and alliances and 19 organizations of ethnic minorities are in the running for the parliamentary elections. PSD has the most candidates for the 2024 parliamentary elections (636), followed by SOS Romania (636), PNL (630) AUR (621) Forța Dreptei (619), the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (596) and the Save Romania Union (589) candidates.
To make it into parliament, parties need to get at least 5% of votes. The final number of seats each party gets will be decided after the ballot when the votes cast for the parties that didn’t make the cut get redistributed.
The campaign for the parliamentary elections began on Nov. 1 and will run until Nov. 30.
UPDATE 30/11/2024 14:32
Romanian citizens voting outside of the country started casting their ballot in this year’s parliamentary election. Abroad, voting takes place in 950 polling stations, over two days: Saturday (Nov. 30, between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. (local time), and Sunday (Dec. 1, between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. (local time). The Central Electoral Bureau informed that until Saturday, at 12:00, a number of 27,277 voters casted their ballots at the polling stations abroad, as well as via mail. The higher turnout was registered in: Republic of Moldova (4,371 voters), Italy (3,986), Germany (3,329), Spain (2,596), United Kingdom of Great Britain (2,129) according to Agerpres.
UPDATE 01/12/2024 14:12
By 1:00 pm, a total of 4,208,929 voters had cast their ballots in the parliamentary election, representing 23.37% of the registered voters, according to real-time data provided by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP). Of the 4,208,929 voters, 303,189 voted abroad (298,846 on additional lists and 4,227 by mail).
UPDATE 02/12/2024 19:49
The PSD ranks first in the electorate’s preferences for the Senate, with 22.30% of the votes, after the centralization of the minutes of all 20,059 polling stations in the country (100%), according to real-time data provided by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP). The AUR ranks second with 18.30% and the National Liberal Party (PNL) with 14.28% of the votes.
(Source: Permanent Electoral Authority website: prezenta.roaep.ro)
The PSD is first in the preferences of the electorate for the Chamber of Deputies, with 21.96% of the votes, after the centralization of the minutes of all 20,059 polling stations in the country (100%), according to real-time data provided by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP). Ranking second is the AUR with 18.01% and the National Liberal Party (PNL) third with 13.20%.
(Source: Permanent Electoral Authority website: prezenta.roaep.ro)
