Close to 12,000 Romanians that are abroad had already voted by Friday morning in the first round of presidential elections that will culminate on Sunday with the vote in Romania.
For this year's presidential elections, the 965 polling stations set up for the diaspora will allow any Romanian citizen who is overseas on election day to cast their vote, whether or not they are officially resident abroad.
The largest number of polling stations are located in Italy and Malta, with 161, followed by Spain with 147, the United Kingdom with 108, France and the Principality of Monaco with 69, the Republic of Moldova with 64, the USA with 50, Belgium with 29, and the Netherlands with 23
Over 18 million voters are expected to cast their ballots on Sunday, choosing their President for the next five years from among the 11 candidates vying for Cotroceni Palace.
The new presidential elections are taking place almost five months after Romania's Constitutional Court (CCR) cancelled the second round of elections and called on authorities to restart the election campaign from scratch. Before the CCR ruling, the Presidential Administration published classified documents pointing to external influence in the electoral process.
The following candidates are vying for the presidential position:
- George Simion (Alliance for the Union of Romanians) - 38 years old
- Crin Antonescu (Romania Ahead Electoral Alliance) - 65 years old
- Elena Lasconi (Save Romania Union) - 52 years old
- Cristian Terheș (Romanian National Conservative Party) - 46 years old
- Lavinia Șandru (Humanist Social Liberal Party) - 50 years old
- Victor Ponta (independent candidate) - 52 years old
- Sebastian Constantin Popescu (New Romania Party) - 43 years old
- Silviu Predoiu (National Action League Party) - 66 years old
- John-Ion Banu-Muscel (independent candidate) - 64 years old
- Daniel Funeriu (independent candidate) - 53 years old
- Nicușor Dan (independent candidate) - 55 years old
