November 24, 2024

A roundup of local and international news

Newsroom, 24.11.2024, 13:55

Presidential Election – The first round of the presidential election is taking place today in Romania, with over 18 million voters being expected to go to the polls in the nearly 19,000 polling stations organized in the country. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), in the first six hours of voting across the country, the turnout was 21%, which means that about 3.8 million voters cast their vote, about 800 thousand voters  more in the urban environment than in villages. Abroad, 951 polling stations are open, and Romanian voters have been able to vote since Friday. Voting in the diaspora during the first two days of the election was rather poor, according to Radio Romania correspondents. The data provided by AEP show that the number of those who cast their vote in the first two days of the election was 223 thousand, of whom over 4,000 opted for the postal vote. The largest mobilization was of the Romanians from Great Britain, with over 42 thousand votes. They are followed by the Romanians from Germany, Italy and Spain. There are 13 candidates in the presidential race, 9 from political parties and 4 independents. Most of the ideological trends are represented in the competition, from social democrats to liberals and from pro-Europeans to populist ultra-nationalists and sovereignists. The second round of the presidential election is scheduled for December 8. On December 1, on the very National Day, the legislative election will take place. We remind you that on June 9, local and European Parliament elections took place in Romania.

Referendum – Today, the citizens of Bucharest with the right to vote are expected to also vote in a referendum initiated by the mayor general Nicuşor Dan. They must answer two questions he proposed, which concern the way of distributing the money between the General City Hall and Bucharest’s 6 sectors and the issuance of building permits in Bucharest. A third question refers to combating drug use in schools. For the validation of this referendum, a presence of 30% of the number of voters in Bucharest is required. At the same time, valid ballots must represent at least 25% of the number of people with the right to vote.

COP29 – At the UN climate summit in Azerbaijan, COP29, richer countries pledged to grant a record 300 billion dollars to developing countries to help them prepare for and prevent climate change. The decision was made at the end of negotiations that led to the extension of the summit by 33 hours and that almost collapsed. ‘It has been a difficult road, but we have reached an agreement,’ said the head of the UN climate agency, Simon Stiell. The funding promised until 2035 ‘is too weak, too late and too ambiguous’, the Kenyan Ali Mohamed said, speaking on behalf of the group of African countries. His counterpart from Malawi, which represents the 45 poorest countries on the planet, Evans Njewa, denounced the agreement as ‘lacking ambition’.

ICR – The Romanian Cultural Institute announces the official opening, on November 26, of its representative office in Tokyo, Japan. ‘Japan is a center of interest for cultural operators from Romania and I am convinced that ICR Tokyo will significantly contribute to the Romanian presence on the Japanese cultural scene’, ICR president Liviu Jicman said. In turn, the Romanian ambassador to Japan, Ovidiu Raeţchi, conveyed that the opening of the ICR representative office in the Japanese capital is a strategic initiative that aims to strengthen the cultural relations between Romania and Japan, to support international artistic cooperation and to offer the Japanese public the opportunity to discover and appreciate the richness and diversity of the Romanian cultural heritage. The first cultural actions of the new structure will be the exhibition of works from the collection of the Japanese photographer Kosey Miya, which capture the charm of Maramureş, and a concert of the Japanese artist Fumiko Sakura. With the establishment of the Romanian cultural center in Tokyo, the number of ICR representative offices abroad reaches 19.

Rugby – The Romanian national rugby team was defeated by the Uruguayan national team 23-21 (13-13), on Saturday evening, at the Arch of Triumph National Rugby Stadium in Bucharest. The Romanian national team has met Uruguay 14 times so far. Romania won ten of these matches, one ended in a draw, and three were won by the South Americans. Following Saturday evening’s result, Romania ends the November test matches with two victories, against Tonga (25-15) and Canada (35-27), and with a failure, against Uruguay (21-23). (LS)