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The campaign for the November 10 presidential election has officially started on Saturday at midnight and will end on November 9, at 7:00 hrs.
The 14 candidates for the country's top job in the order they appear on the ballot paper - determined by draw - is as follows: Klaus Iohannis - backed by the National Liberal Party; Theodor Paleologu - the People's Movement Party; Dan Barna - the USR-PLUS Alliance; Kelemen Hunor - the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania; Viorica Dancila - the Social Democratic Party; Catalin Ivan - the Alternative for National Dignity; Ninel Peia - the Romanian People Party; Sebastian-Constantin Popescu - the New Romania Party; John-Ion Banu - the Romanian Nation Party; Mircea Diaconu - the 'Un Om' Alliance; Bogdan Marian-Stanoevici - independent; Ramona-Ioana Bruynseels - the Humanist Power Party; Viorel Catarama - the Liberal Right; Alexandru Cumpanasu - independent.
The President of Romania is elected "by universal, equal, direct, secret and freely expressed vote, according to the law," for a five-year term. The candidate who garners the majority of the ballots cast by the voters registered in the permanent electoral lists is declared elected. If none of the candidates wins a majority, a runoff will be organized on November 24, where the top two candidates will go against each other. The winner is the candidate who obtains the highest number of valid votes cast.
The election campaign runs via public and private radio and television services, with the candidates having both free and paid air time allocated at the public and private broadcasters. The radio and TV broadcasters are required to reflect the campaign under observance of the principles of balance, fairness and impartiality, treating the electoral competitors in an objective and unbiased manner. Ensuring free air time is mandatory so that all the candidates have equal access to radio and television broadcasts.
The Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) has completed the establishment and numbering of the locations of the 18,748 polling stations set up in the country for the election of the President of Romania in 2019.
The list of the polling stations is available on the AEP website at www.roaep.ro, section Electoral Management / Electoral Geography / Polling stations register.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday submitted to the Permanent Electoral Authority an additional list of 270 polling stations abroad that add to 444 already approved places, but the ministry estimates that over 800 polling places will be set up in the end.
The countries where most of these polling stations will be set up are Spain (148), Italy (142), Germany (84), the United Kingdom (73), France (48), the US (38), the Republic of Moldova (36), Belgium (23), the Netherlands (22), Ireland (16), Denmark (12), Austria (11), Greece (11), Portugal (9), and Switzerland (8).
The legal deadline for submitting to the AEP proposals for polling stations abroad is October 19.
The election of the President of Romania abroad will take place over three days for each round, namely November 8, 9 and 10 for the first round, and November 22, 23 and 24 for the second round. Romanians abroad who have registered online can also vote by mail. According to the official portal www.votstrainatate.ro, a number of 43,003 Romanians living abroad have chosen this alternative.
