Romania presidential elections 2025: Exit polls show ultranationalist candidate first, tight race for runner-up

Ultranationalist candidate George Simion, the leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), is in the first place in the first round of the presidential elections, with more than 30% of the votes, according to exit polls carried out by CURS and Avangarde.

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Crin Antonescu, the candidate of the ruling coalition, and Nicușor Dan, the Bucharest mayor running as independent, are in a close race for the second place. Avangarde placed them with the same score, while CURS showed the candidate of the Social Democrat Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL), and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) coalition as having a 2% lead.

The Avangarde poll results are valid for 19:00, while those of the CURS poll for 20:00.

The polls don't cover the vote in the diaspora.

The turnout reported by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), including voters in the diaspora, was of 53.2%, meaning 9.5 million voters. A total of 969,023 people voted in the diaspora, up from the 817,476 who voted in the November 2024 presidential elections.

Eleven candidates were in the race in this year's repeat presidential elections. The Constitutional Court decided to annul the results of last year’s presidential elections because of suspicions of foreign interference in the process.

The results are updated hereas polling stations start sending them in.

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To be updated

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