The Constitutional Court of Romania has officially confirmed the results of the first round of the presidential election, held on May 4, and rejected as unfounded the appeal of candidate Sebastian Popescu, who demanded the annulment of the vote, the Romanian national agency Agerpres reports.
The decision clears the way for a runoff between the leader of the nationalist party "Alliance for the Unity of Romanians" (AUR) Gheorghe Simion and independent candidate and current mayor of Bucharest, Nicosor Dan.
According to the final results published by the Central Electoral Bureau, 9,571,899 citizens, or 53.19% of those eligible to vote, participated in the elections. Simion received 3,862,761 votes (40.96%), and Dan received 1,979,767 votes (20.99%).
After the validation of the result, the official campaign for the second round, scheduled for May 18, begins. The vote is taking place in a context of ongoing political instability, after the previous election process in November 2024 was annulled due to alleged Russian interference in favor of the disqualified candidate Calin Georgescu.