Romania presidential elections 2019: Over 670,000 Romanians vote abroad, an all time record

Update 5: Over 637,000 Romanians voted abroad in the first round of the presidential elections in Romania, an all-time record turnout. The previous record was recorded at the elections for the Europea Parliament in May when some 385,000 Romanians voted abroad. This time, Romanians in the Diaspora had three days to vote and could also vote by mail (25,000 did that). Italy, the UK, Germany, Spain and Moldova were the countries where the highest numbers of voters were recorded.

Who did the Romanians in Diaspora vote for?

Update 4: Over 620,000 Romanians voted abroad to elect their president by 19:10 (Bucharest time) on Sunday evening. The largest numbers were recorded in Italy (122,000), UK (104,000), Germany (96,000), Spain (80,000), Moldova (42,000), France (29,000), Belgium (24,000), Austria (18,000), and the Netherlands (11,000). There were also close to 10,000 voters in Denmark and Ireland. In the US, close to 6,200 Romanians have cast their votes by 19:10 (Bucharest time) while in Canada there were over 2,700 voters.

Voting in Western Europe and America ends later than in Romania, due to time differences. The polls close at 21:00 local time when the first exit poll results will be made public.

Update 3: Over 500,000 Romanians have already voted abroad in the presidential elections, by Sunday afternoon at 16:00 (Bucharest time), an all-time record. The previous record was recorded at the elections for the Europea Parliament in May when some 385,000 Romanians voted abroad. This time, Romanians in the Diaspora had three days to vote and could also vote by mail (25,000 did that).

More than 100,000 Romanians voted in Italy, 85,000 in the UK, 80,000 in Germany, and 67,000 in Spain. In the Republic of Moldova, over 36,000 Romanians went to vote.

Update 2: Over 206,000 Romanians abroad went to vote by Saturday, November 9, at 18:00 (Bucharest time). Adding the 25,000 people who voted by correspondence, the total number of voters passed 230,000. Over 38,000 Romanians voted in Italy, 35,000 in the UK, 32,000 in Germany, 25,000 in Spain, and close to 10,000 in France. In the Republic of Moldova, over 14,000 people voted.

The city where most people voted abroad were London (almost 15,000 voters, including the suburbs), Chisinau (7,700), and Brussels (5,500), according to live data from the Central Electoral Office.

You may also want to read: Why are the votes from abroad important?

Update 1: Over 60,000 Romanians cast their votes in the first round of the presidential elections at polling stations abroad on Friday, November 8 (by 20:00 Bucharest time). More than 11,000 voted in Italy, 9,400 in UK and Germany, 8,300 in Spain, and over 3,000 in France and Belgium.

About 30,000 Romanians have voted abroad (in polling stations) in the first round of the presidential elections, by 16:10 (Bucharest time) on Friday (November 8), according to live data from the Central Electoral Office – BEC. Another 25,000 had already voted by mail.

The highest number of voters abroad – over 5,200 - was recorded in Italy. Some 4,000 Romanians also voted in the UK and Spain, over 3,700 voted in Germany, and 3,200 voted in the Republic of Moldova. About 1,400 voted in France and Belgium.

Live data about the number of Romanians who voted abroad are available here.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has opened a record number of over 800 polling stations abroad for this year’s presidential elections and the Government decided that voting abroad takes three days (Friday to Sunday), to avoid situations recorded at previous elections when many Romanians were unable to cast their votes.

The polling stations abroad opened on Friday at 12:00 (local time) and will stay open until 21:00. On Saturday and Sunday, the voting schedule is from 7:00 to 21:00.

More details about the voting process abroad and the location of the polling stations are available in this article.

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(Photo source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Facebook page)