Bucharest (Romania), May 18 (LaPresse) – Polls opened this morning at 7 a.m. for the presidential runoff election in Romania. According to official figures, voter turnout stood at around 9.5% just two hours after polls opened. Romanians living abroad have been able to vote since Friday at specially set-up polling stations, with more than 750,000 having already cast their ballots.
The runoff pits front-runner George Simion, 38, leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), against the incumbent mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan. The vote comes in the wake of the annulment of the previous election, which plunged the country into its worst political crisis in decades.