The presidential election in Romania will be held on May 4, with local elections also scheduled for that day in some regions. A second round, if necessary, will be held on May 18.
This is stated on the Romanian government website.
Government spokesman Mihai Konstantin said that citizens living abroad will have three days to support their candidate. On the first day, polling stations will open at 07:00 local time instead of 12:00.
On Sunday, the last day, they will not be able to vote after Romanian polling stations close. However, if there are still voters at the polling stations who did not have time to participate, the schedule may be extended.
According to the Romania-Insider media outlet, at the beginning of the meeting, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced the introduction of measures against social media in case of favoritism towards one of the candidates.
“We made the changes to ensure the same rules for all candidates and to put an end to the practices we saw in the last election,” he said.
Çolaku added that fines for such activities can reach up to 5% of the platformsʼ turnover.
Presidential elections in Romania
The first round of the presidential election in Romania was held on November 24, 2024. Far-right politician Calin Georgescu and liberal pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi advanced to the second round. Lasconi beat the countryʼs incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu by just 2 700 votes.
Georgescuʼs leadership was unexpected, and he was accused of influencing the election through TikTok. Because of this, the European Commission even asked the platform to provide information on how the social network has reduced the risk of inauthentic or automated use of its service, as well as to list the risks arising from its recommended content system.
Romanian intelligence has found that the TikTok account bogpr, used by Romanian citizen Bogdan Pescir, participated in financing Georgescuʼs campaign. He made payments totaling $381 000 between October 24 and November 24 to users of TikTok accounts that participated in Georgescuʼs promotion.
Romaniaʼs Constitutional Court on December 6 annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election.
In January, Romaniaʼs High Court of Cassation rejected an appeal by far-right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, in which he challenged three decisions by the Central Electoral Bureau to declare the vote invalid.
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