Bucharest residents head to the polls to elect next mayor

Close to 1.8 million Bucharest residents are expected to cast their ballot on Sunday, December 7, to elect the city's next mayor.

The post has been vacant since Nicușor Dan was elected president this May. He had secured a second mandate as mayor of Bucharest in June 2024, having won over 48% of the votes. After he changed roles, his duties were taken over by interim mayor Stelian Bujduveanu.

The new mayor will hold the job until the next local elections, scheduled for 2028.

The voting takes place between 7:00 and 21:00.

Mayors are elected in a single voting round, and there is no minimum threshold for the elections to be declared valid.

Seventeen candidates have been cleared in the Bucharest mayoral race. Ten of them are backed by political parties, and seven are independent candidates. Two of the candidates announced they would withdraw in favor of other, better-placed peers. They will still be listed on the ballot since the announcement came after the cut-off date.

Various surveys have shown a very tight race, but also a significant share of undecided voters. The elections are seen as a test for the governing coalition parties' ability to win some of the ground lost in the recent electoral cycle. They take place in a social and economic climate impacted by a series of austerity measures introduced to rein in a government deficit of 9.3% of GDP in 2024, Europe's largest.

A 'general' mayor leads Bucharest, while six other mayors run the city's districts. The general mayor administers a significant part of the city's infrastructure and services, including the centralized water and heating networks, public transport, and the main roads and arteries. The holder of the post implements the decisions approved by the city's General Council, a body of elected officials.

Last year, then-mayor Nicușor Dan initiated a referendum advocating for a more equitable distribution of tax revenues between the general city hall and the district ones. The initiative also proposed centralizing the authority to issue building permits with the general mayor's office. The referendum was approved by a majority of the electorate at the end of 2024.

Mayoral elections also take place in 12 other localities in ten counties. In Buzău county, eight candidates are in the race to lead the County Council, among them