Pro-EU Nicusor Dan on course to beat hard-right rival in Romania election | News

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

George Simion rejected the exit poll soon after it was released, claiming he was ahead in the vote.

Centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who has pledged to clamp down on corruption and is staunchly pro-EU and NATO, is on course to win presidential elections in Romania.

Exit polls showed Dan ahead with 54.9 percent. His rival, hard-right nationalist George Simion, was on 45.1 percent.

Simion rejected the exit poll soon after it was released, claiming on Sunday his count estimates have him at 400,000 votes more than Dan.

Dan had campaigned on a pledge to fight rampant corruption and to keep Romania firmly within the European mainstream.

The rerun was held months after the cancellation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades.

Turnout was significantly higher in Sunday’s runoff and is expected to play a decisive role in the outcome.

Official results are expected to come in later on Sunday.

Simion appeared alongside 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!”

More to come…