Frontrunner of EU state’s scrapped presidential election tops latest poll
Hardline right-wing presidential hopeful Calin Georgescu is projected to win the first round of new elections in Romania, a survey suggests Read Full Article at RT.com
Romanian right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu is leading the field ahead of new ballot in May, a new survey suggests
The right-wing frontrunner in November’s first round of Romania’s presidential election that was annulled, has topped the latest opinion poll in the country, ahead of a new ballot scheduled for May. According to the Avangarde survey, Calin Georgescu is expected to actually perform better than during the scrapped election.
A critic of NATO and the EU and a staunch opponent of sending aid to Ukraine, Georgescu topped the now-annulled first-round vote in November with 22.94%, beating liberal leftist and social democrat candidates. Romania’s Constitutional Court suddenly cancelled the election ahead of the second-round vote, citing intelligence documents alleging ‘irregularities’ in Georgescu’s campaign performance.
The candidate is now projected to get 38% of the vote – against some 23% he secured last time. Georgescu’s approval in the survey is followed by Crin Antonescu, the likely single candidate of the pro-EU coalition government, who is projected to get 25% of the vote, and, with some 17% of respondents favorable, Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who said he could end up running as an independent.
It remains unclear whether Georgescu would be actually allowed to run for office again in the May polls.
His shock November win caused a political meltdown in Romania, prompting a barrage of assorted allegations against the right-wing hardliner. The 62-year-old, who ran his campaign largely through TikTok, also faced false allegations that his bid was funded by foreign actors, presumably Russia.
None of the claims, however, were backed by any solid evidence, while preliminary findings of an investigation into the election scandal found the campaign “irregularities” were bankrolled by the pro-Western National Liberal Party (PNL).
On Tuesday, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected an appeal lodged by Georgescu, who demanded that it overturn the domestic court decision to annul the election results. The ECHR threw out the case altogether, ruling the issue was outside of its remit.
The poll sampled some 1,354 Romanians, representing various social and age groups, and was conducted between January 10 and 16.
