November 24, 2024 NEWS UPDATE

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Newsroom, 24.11.2024, 19:25

Presidential Election – The first round of the presidential election takes place on Sunday in Romania, with over 18 million voters being expected to hit the polls in the nearly 19,000 polling stations organized in the country. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), voter turnout stood at over 45% after the first 11 hours of voting, which means that about 8.2 million voters cast their vote, over 1.4 million voters more in urban centers compared to the rural area. Over 674,000 Romanians have so far voted in the 951 polling stations open abroad. The voting process abroad started on Friday, where voter turnout was subpar, Radio Romania correspondents say. The data provided by AEP show that the number of people who cast their vote in the first two days of the election was 223 thousand, of whom over 4,000 opted for postal voting. The largest mobilization was in Great Britain, where over 42 thousand Romanians have voted. They are followed by Romanians in Germany, Italy and Spain. 13 candidates are enrolled in the presidential race, 9 representing political parties and 4 independents. Most ideological trends are represented in the competition, from Social-Democrats to Liberals, and from pro-Europeans to populist ultra-nationalists and sovereigntists. The second round of the presidential election is scheduled for December 8. The parliamentary election is scheduled on December 1, the National Day of Romania. We recall that on June 9, local and European Parliament elections took place in Romania.

Referendum – The local referendum initiated by the general mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, exceeded the 30% threshold required for validation. According to the data provided in real time by the Permanent Electoral Authority, by 7 p.m. local time, over 37% of Bucharest residents on the electoral lists had voted. They had to answer two questions proposed by the mayor Nicusor Dan, related to the way of distributing the money between the General City Hall and Bucharest’s 6 sectors and the issuance of building permits in the Capital. A third question was added upon the initiative of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) (in the governing coalition) which refers to the fight against drug use in schools.

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)