'Higher' voter turnout in Romania's presidential election redo - video Dailymotion

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00:00Yes, well, Romanians have started voting since 7 a.m. this morning,

00:04and voter turnout is higher than at the same time last year for the first round.

00:10This shows that Romanians think that this election is very important.

00:16A lot is at stake, and they have told us here in this polling station in Bucharest,

00:22they think that this is the occasion to confirm Romania's European path, European integration,

00:30or to vote for an ultra-nationalist candidate and for the far-right, the so-called sovereignist team.

00:39Many also think that this vote is a vote against the system.

00:43What they call the system are the traditional parties that have dominated Romania's political scene

00:49since the fall of communism in 1989,

00:54and so they accuse them of being responsible for widespread corruption,

00:58for the economic problems that are pushing thousands, millions of Romanians abroad

01:02to find work abroad in other European countries.

01:05And so for many, this is also a vote against the system,

01:08whether this will be for a candidate that is far-right or pro-European, that remains to be seen.

01:16But so far, polls indicate that George Simeon, who is replacing Killeen Georgescu for the far-right camp,

01:24will win this first round with about 30% of vote,

01:28and he'll be followed either by Killeen Antonescu, who's running for the ruling coalition,

01:33or by Nico Chordan, who's the centre-right pro-European mayor of Bucharest.

01:38But again, polls are not very reliable, as we've seen last year,

01:42so we'll have to wait for the results to tell you more.

01:47Yeah, so a lot at stake, very clearly, in Romania.

01:50And as you mentioned, Simeon replacing Killeen Georgescu,

01:53who last year, the top court voided that election,

01:57following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.

02:02I'm just curious, Maria, what is the mix of emotions that people are feeling

02:07as they cast their ballots this Sunday?

02:09Yeah, well, a lot of people in Romania are against the annulment of the election,

02:17and they actually think that their votes, the votes of Romanians that were cast last November,

02:22should have been respected.

02:24Others are, on the contrary, relieved that Killeen Georgescu,

02:27who is a far-right candidate, isolationist, ultra-nationalist,

02:31has been banned from running, and that that election was cancelled.

02:35So opinions really diverge between those that fear that the far-right will win this election,

02:43that Romania will shift towards a less pro-European path,

02:49and those who hope that their nationalistic ideals,

02:52maybe their more traditional values, will be represented in the results.

'Higher' voter turnout in Romania's presidential election redo

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