Polls close in crucial presidential run-off election in Romania

Romanians have been voting on Sunday in a tense presidential run-off between a hard-right nationalist and a pro-western centrist in a high-stakes election rerun that could determine the geopolitical direction of the European Union and Nato member country.

The race pits front-runner George Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, against incumbent Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan.

It comes months after the cancellation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades.

Polls opened at 7am and have now closed.

When voting closed some 11.6 million people — or about 64% of eligible voters — had cast ballots, according to official electoral data.

About 1.64 million Romanians abroad, who have been able to vote since Friday at specially set-up polling stations, participated in the vote.

Turnout was significantly higher in Sunday’s run-off and is expected to play a decisive role in the outcome. In the first round on May 4, final turnout stood at 9.5 million, or 53% of eligible voters.

Romania’s political landscape was upended last year when a top court voided the previous election after far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow denied.

Mr Simion appeared alongside Mr Georgescu at a Bucharest polling station on Sunday and told reporters that he voted against the “humiliations to which our sisters and brothers have been subjected”.

“We voted against abuses and against poverty,” he said. “I voted for our future to be decided only by Romanians, for Romanians and Romania. So help us God.”