Who is running for Romania’s presidency?
16 candidates are admitted to the race for the presidency of Romania. However, the final list will be announced on October 10.
Roxana Vasile, 07.10.2024, 14:00
The presidential election is now in a straight line. The most awaited election of all four organized this year in Romania will take place in two rounds: on November 24 and December 8. The Central Electoral Bureau (BEC), meeting on Sunday evening to analyze the last files submitted, rejected 10 candidacies and admitted the registration of another 9. Thus, in total, there are 16 admitted candidates in the race for Romania’s presidency. The final list of competitors will be announced on October 10, after other mandatory documents will be submitted, such as the affidavits regarding their status of workers or collaborators of the Securitate (Political Police of the former Communist regime), as well as the declarations of wealth and interests. The electoral campaign for the presidential election officially begins on October 25 and is about to be a fierce one, given the political stakes of the election.
Unofficially, however, the campaign has already started for weeks, with each of the most famous aspirants to the presidential seat trying to maximize their pole position in the race. These are, in the order of submission of candidacies to the BEC, George Simion, from the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), Elena Lasconi representing the Save Romania Union (USR) and Nicolae Ciucă, the leader of the National Liberal Party, followed by Kelemen Hunor, from the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Mircea Geoană, an independent candidate and Marcel Ciolacu, the leader of the Social Democratic Party. A huge scandal broke out on Saturday evening, after the judges of the Constitutional Court (CCR) admitted, with a majority of votes, the objections to the registration of Diana Şoşoacă’s candidacy in the presidential race. The controversial MEP submitted a new candidacy file, but it was also rejected on Sunday, this time by the Central Electoral Bureau. The Constitutional Court’s decision to remove the S.O.S. president from the electoral race is final and unprecedented.
Romania has deepened the differences between the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL), which are currently partners in the government. Diana Şoşoacă accused that her removal from the race would favor the AUR leader, George Simion, who would thus have better chances to enter the second round, and the social democrat Marcel Ciolacu, credited by the polls with the first chance, would have an easier fight against his opponent in the final round of the presidential election. The opinion was shared by PNL and USR, whose leaders – Nicolae Ciucă and Elena Lasconi – believe that PSD would have influenced the rejection of Mrs. Șoșoacă’s candidacy. The PSD rejected the accusations, and Marcel Ciolacu emphasized that the CCR must quickly publish their motivation, otherwise we can talk about a vulnerability of the democratic system in Romania. The Court’s decision may have constitutional coverage, but it certainly has anti-democratic effects, unhealthy for democracy, the independent Mircea Geoană also reacted. (LS)
