With more than 99 per cent of votes counted, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu, a far-right, pro-Russia candidate, has an unassailable lead in the Romanian presidential election of nearly 350,000 votes over his centre-right rival, Elena Lasconi, and the Prime Minister in third.
The preliminary results have left the pre-election favourite Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, out of the race, who has vowed to continue Romania’s pro-western path.
Lasconi is now on track to challenge Georgescu, 62, in the final round on December 8. According to the latest count, Lasconi has more than a thousand votes than Ciolacu.
Exit polls released on Sunday suggested that Ciolacu had a commanding lead, projecting that Lasconi would take second place.
Political commentator Radu Magdin described the support for Georgescu as unprecedented, with earlier opinion polls placing him at around 5% of the vote.
“Never in our 34 years of democracy have we seen such a surge compared to surveys,” Mr Magdin said, the BBC reported.
The latest electoral data has shown, however, that Georgescu led the polls with around 22% of the vote, while Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party, or PSD, trailed behind at 20.6%.
After polls closed at 9pm local time, 9.4 million people – about 52.4 percent of eligible voters – had cast ballots, according to the Central Election Bureau, France 24 reported.
Georgescu, who has run independently, has sworn to end what he calls subservience to the European Union and NATO, especially in support of Ukraine. He has condemned the NATO ballistic missile defence shield in Deveselu, Romania.
After casting his ballot on Sunday, Georgescu said in a post on Facebook that he voted “For the unjust, for the humiliated, for those who feel they do not matter and actually matter the most … the vote is a prayer for the nation.”
Campaigning has focused largely on the high cost of living – Romania has the EU’s largest share of people at risk of poverty.
The president of Romania is a largely symbolic position but does have considerable influence on areas such as foreign policy and judicial appointments. They will serve a five-year term.
Another nationalist, George Simion, is projected to take fourth place and gave his full support to Georgescu early on Monday morning. He is a vocal supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump and campaigned for reunification with Moldova, which this year renewed a five-year ban on him entering the country over security concerns. He is banned from neighbouring Ukraine for the same reason.
