Final Results Show a Runoff Between Independent Candidate Călin Georgescu and USR’s Elena Lasconi.
2024 Romania’s Presidential Elections, Călin Georgescu, an ultranationalist running as an independent, surprised everyone by winning the first round of the presidential elections. He will now face Elena Lasconi from USR in the second round. The final results also revealed that the major parties, PSD (Social Democrats) and PNL (Liberals), did not make it past the first round, causing a big shock in the elections.
The official results show that over 9.46 million Romanians voted in the first round of the presidential election on November 24, which is 52.55% of eligible voters.
This was slightly higher than the 51.2% turnout in the 2019 election.
Călin Georgescu, an independent far-right candidate, surprised many by winning with around 2.12 million votes (22.94%).
This was unexpected because most polls had predicted Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu as the favorite, while Georgescu had low ratings in surveys.
Reformist Elena Lasconi, from the Save Romania Union (USR) party, also beat Ciolacu and secured a spot in the second round with 19.18% (about 1.77 million votes).
Final results show a runoff between independent candidate Călin Georgescu and USR’s Elena Lasconi.
The final results showed Lasconi had only 2,740 more votes than Ciolacu. As a result, Ciolacu finished third with 19.15%, marking a major loss for the Social Democrats, as this is the first time they failed to send their candidate to the final round.
Marcel Ciolacu resigned as leader of the Social Democrats on Monday after the final results were confirmed. However, he will remain as prime minister until after the parliamentary elections on December 1.Another far-right candidate, George Simion (AUR), came in fourth with 13.86%, according to the final results.
Nicolae Ciucă, the Liberal candidate, received just 8.79% of the vote, the lowest in the history of the Romanian Liberals since the fall of communism. He also resigned as leader of PNL after the results.
Mircea Geoană, former NATO deputy secretary general, finished sixth with 6.32%.
Overall, the November 24 election results show that Romania’s two main governing parties, PSD and PNL, were punished for their performance. Voters seemed to favor lesser-known candidates like Călin Georgescu and small-town mayor Elena Lasconi.: 2024 Romania’s Presidential Elections:
The ultranationalist movement, led by George Simion of AUR and independent Călin Georgescu, has gained about 36% of the vote. This makes the upcoming parliamentary elections on December 1 (Romania’s National Day) uncertain, as it will depend on which candidates Georgescu’s supporters choose to back.
(Photos: Inquam Photos/Adriana Neagoe, Octav Ganea)
