Voting booths open for 18 million Romanians in first round of presidential election

Newsroom 02/11/2014 | 08:06

Voting booths around the country opened on Sunday morning at 7.00 am and are waiting for 18,284,326 Romanian citizens to vote for their new president, out of which 1,788,196 in Bucharest alone. According to statistics, there are 18,500 voting sections in the country and 294 abroad. The first vote has already been cast in the section in New Zeeland.

The booths will be closing at 9.00 pm (Romanian time).

Citizens heading for the voting booths today will find 14 candidates on the ballots. If no candidate will get 50% + 1 of the votes of all registered voters, a second round will be held two weeks later, on 16 November, with the top two candidates running against each other.

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This is the first time since 1996 when more than 12 presidential candidates kick off the race for Cotroceni Palace. Likewise, this is the first time two women candidate for the position of president of the country and the first time three ethnics of the national minorities figure on the ballot papers.