Romanian Presidential Elections 2024: Unexpected Lead by Independent Calin Georgescu in First Round

In a surprising turn of events, the first round of Romania‘s presidential elections held on November 24, 2024, has seen independent candidate Calin Georgescu take the lead, defying earlier exit polls and pre-election predictions.

With approximately 76% of the votes counted and centralized, Calin Georgescu, a 63-year-old specialist in environment conservation, has garnered over 1.6 million votes, representing about 22% of the 7.3 million ballots counted so far. This places him ahead of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democrat Party (PSD), who secured around 1.57 million votes or 21.5% of the total.

Earlier exit polls had suggested that PM Marcel Ciolacu would comfortably lead the first round with an estimated 25% of the votes, followed by Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union (USR) with 18%. However, the actual results have revealed a different scenario, with Lasconi coming in third with 1.18 million votes (16.1% of the total).

The unexpected success of Calin Georgescu, who ran a campaign largely focused on social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok, has shocked the political establishment in Romania. His campaign was not widely covered by mainstream media, and pre-election polls did not indicate he would be a contender for the second round, estimating his score at about 5%.

If the current results hold, the second round of the presidential elections will likely be between Calin Georgescu and Marcel Ciolacu. However, with about 2 million ballots still to be counted, primarily from Bucharest, other major cities, and the diaspora, there is still a possibility for Elena Lasconi to close the gap on the top two candidates.