Results of the first round of the Romanian presidential election published

Romania's Central Electoral Bureau (CEC) on Tuesday, November 26, presented the official results of the first round of the country's presidential election. According to their data, independent candidate Calin Georgescu is leading with 22.94%, while the leader of the opposition Romania Salvation Union party, Elena Lasconi, has 19.18% of the votes.

"The situation with the votes received by the candidates: Calin Georgescu received more than 2.1 million legally cast votes, which is 22.94% of the total number of valid votes cast, Elena Lasconi received 1.7 million validly cast votes, which is 19.18% of the total number of valid votes cast," the bureau said in a statement on its website.

The CEC noted that the final turnout amounted to 52.55%.

The second round of voting will be held on December 8, as none of the candidates was able to garner more than 50%.

Earlier in the day, media reported on the leadership of independent candidate Calin Georgescu in the Romanian presidential election. According to the data of processing of 98.7% of votes, Georgescu gained 22.65% of votes, his rival Prime Minister of Romania, head of the Social Democratic Party Marchel Ciolacu - 19.46%.

On November 25, Ruslan Andreev, an expert of the Polylog Group, told Izvestiya that the victory of independent candidate Calin Geor gescu in the first round of the presidential election in Romania could harm Ukraine for a number of reasons.

Before that, on October 6, the Romanian Supreme Court excluded far-right politician Diana Shoshoake from the list of candidates in the presidential election without explaining the reasons. Politicians from different circles called this court ruling an unprecedented threat to legal values.