Romania’s Central Electoral Council (BEC) has authorised Gheorghe Simion, leader of the Alliance for Romanian Unity (AUR) and an associate of Kelin Georgescu, to run in the country’s May presidential election, the Romanian service of Radio Liberty reported.
The 15 March decision came a day after Simion applied to register as a candidate.
Simion and Anamaria Gavrila, leader of the far-right Party of Youth (POT), announced earlier this week that they planned to enter the race, and if both were allowed to run, one of them would withdraw. Gavrila was expected to file on 15 March, when the time for accepting applications expires.
Also on 15 March, the BEC rejected the candidacy of another far-right politician, SOS Romania party leader Diana Shoshoake, and endorsed the candidacy of pro-European centrist Elena Lasconi. Shoshoake was also denied registration as a candidate for the election when it was held in November.
Romanian far-right politician Kelin Georgescu on 11 March lost an appeal against the Central Electoral Commission’s decision to bar him from running in the country’s planned May 2025 repeat presidential election.
Georgescu, known for his nationalist and pro-Russian views, won the first round of the election last November, but the results were annulled due to allegations of foreign interference.