The Constitutional Court unanimously validated on Friday, May 9, the results of the first round of the presidential elections. 

It also rejected as unfounded a request to annul the elections filed by Sebastian-Constantin Popescu, the presidential candidate of the New Romania Party, it announced.

The runoff, set for May 18, will see ultranationalist leader George Simion, the candidate of AUR, face off against independent candidate Nicuşor Dan, the current mayor of Bucharest, supported by pro-EU parties.

Simion received 40.96% of the valid votes cast in the first round, while Nicuşor Dan gathered 20.99% of the votes, according to the final results released by the Central Electoral Commission (BEC). For Simion, it meant 3,862,761 valid votes, and for Dan, 1,979,767 ones, out of a total of 9.4 million valid votes cast.

A total of 141,388 votes were declared invalid, representing 1.48% of the total number of voters who turned out.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)

simona@romania-insider.com