Higher Turnout in 2024 Local and European Elections in Romania

By Alina Grigoras Last updated Jun 9, 2024

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Nearly 19 million Romanians are expected to vote today in the local and European parliamentary elections. Polling stations will be open from 07:00 to 22:00. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority, 207,389 candidates are registered for the local elections. For the European Parliament elections, voters will choose from 16 parties and alliances or independent candidates.

By 19:00 p.m., 7,957,115 Romanians voted in the European Parliament elections, with a turnout of 44.16%. Also, in the local elections, 7,658,219 Romanians have come to the polls so far, the turnout being 42.35%. The turnout at the polls, until 7 p.m., in rural areas was 4,012,008, while in urban areas 3,646,211 people voted.

By 7:00 p.m., 7,957,115 Romanians voted in the European Parliament elections, with a turnout of 44.16%. Also, in the local elections, 7,658,219 Romanians have come to the polls so far, the turnout being 42.35%. In May 2019, at the European Parliament, at 19:00, there were 7,832,880 voters and a turnout of 42.87%. In September 2020, there were 7,589,587 voters and a turnout of 41.48% at the local polls at 19:00.

By 18:00 p.m., 7,250,520 Romanians voted in the European Parliament elections, with a turnout of 40.24%. Also, in the local elections, 6,985,692 Romanians have come to the polls so far, the turnout being 38.63%.

The pace of voting dropped between 12.30 and 3.30 p.m., but then picked up again. However, only a little over 150 thousand Romanians voted at the polling stations abroad, almost 60% less than in 2019.

At 18:00 p.m., the percentage of voters reached 40%, out of the more than 18 million registered on the permanent lists in the country, which means that more than 7.2 million Romanians voted. The pace of voting recovers, starting at 3:30 p.m., but is still well below that of noon.

The highest turnout, at 6 p.m., was registered in the counties of Olt, Vâlcea, Teleorman, Giurgiu and Gorj. At the opposite pole, the lowest attendance was in Vaslui county, in Bucharest and in Galați, Iași and Timiș.
Abroad, 150,000 voters voted by 6 p.m. Romanian time, compared to 237,000 in the 2019 European elections.

By 17:00 p.m., 6,573,019 Romanians voted in the European Parliament elections, with a turnout of 36.48%. Also, in the local elections, 6,340,012 Romanians have come to the polls so far, the turnout being 35.06%, however similar to the one in September 2020.

In May 2019, at 17:00, there were 6,407,908 voters and a turnout of 35.07% for EP elections. In September 2020, there were 6,327,857 voters and a turnout of 34.58% at the local polls at 17:00.

By 16:00 p.m., 5,950,880 Romanians voted in the European Parliament elections, the turnout being 33.02%. Also, in the local elections, 5,749,759 Romanians have come to the polls so far, the turnout being 31.80%.

By 4:00 p.m., 5,950,880 Romanians voted in the European Parliament elections, with a turnout of 33.02%. Also, in the local elections, 5,749,759 Romanians have come to the polls so far, the turnout being 31.80% In May 2019, at the European Parliament, at 16:00, there were 5,717,682 voters and a turnout of 31.29%. In September 2020, there were 5,662,054 voters and a turnout of 30.94% at the local polls at 16:00.

More votes were cast in rural areas than in urban areas. By 4:00 p.m., 2,717,118 urban voters went to the polls, while 3,032,641 people voted in rural areas.

Olt (38.9%), Vâlcea (38.41%), Giurgiu (38.08%), Teleorman (38%), Gorj (37.74 %), Sălaj(36.96%), Dâmbovița (36.85%), Mehedinți (36.79%), Bihor (35.83%), Bistrița-Năsăud (37.71%) counties reported the highest turnout by 16:00p.m., according to AEP data.

The lowest turnout was is Galați County (25.8%), Bucharest Municipality (24.39%) and Vaslui County (24.23%).

By 15:00, more Romanians had voted both in the last local elections (plus 170,000) and in the last European parliamentary elections (plus 300,000), but the differences decreased in the last hours.

Until 3 p.m. in the local elections, 5,183,122 voters came to the polling stations, the turnout being 28.66%. Four years ago, at the last polling stations, by 3:00 p.m., 5,010,356 Romanians had gone to the polls, the turnout being 27.38%.

Also, in the European elections, 5,352,120 people voted by 3:00 p.m., thus reaching 29.70%. At the last European Parliament elections, up to the same time, 5,058,070 Romanians had voted, with a turnout of 27.68%.

At 14:00 the turnout of 26% in the European parliamentary elections was exceeded. In the 2019 elections, at this time, 23.91% were registered. In terms of local elections, the turnout is 25.34% compared to 23.71% in 2020.

By 2:00 p.m., 4,582,232 voters went to the polls in the local elections, i.e. a turnout of 25.34%. For comparison, in 2020, by 2:00 p.m., 4,338,179 Romanians had come, generating a voter turnout of 23.71%. Also, by 2:00 p.m., 4,718,812 voters had come to the polling stations for the European Parliament elections, the voter turnout thus being 26.19%. In the last elections for the European Parliament, from 2019, up to the same time, 4,368,755 Romanians had voted, i.e. a turnout of 23.91%.

By 1:00 p.m., 3,910,256 votes were cast in the local elections, compared to 3,631,578 cast at the same time in the previous elections in 2020. At the same time, 4,014,110 votes were cast in the European Parliament elections votes compared to 3,609,620 in 2019.

By 12:00 p.m., 3,203,570 Romanians had voted in the European Parliament elections, the turnout being 17.78%.

Also, in the local elections, 3,129,846 Romanians have come to the polls so far, the turnout being 17.31%. In May 2019, at the European Parliament, at 12:00, there were 2,751,184 voters and a turnout of 15.06%. In September 2020, there were 2,870,898 voters and a turnout of 15.69% at the local polls at 12:00.

A number of 2,338,416 Romanians had voted until 11:00, representing 13% of the number of voters registered on the lists. The highest attendance was in Teleorman – 20.36% and Olt – 19.68%, and the lowest in Bucharest – 9.53%.

In Bucharest, 174,544 people (190,928 5 years ago) voted by 11:00 a.m., with a turnout of 9.74% (compared to 10.61% in 2019). Also, 170,381 people voted in local elections (162,911 in 2020), the voter turnout being 9.41% (compared to 8.95% in 2020).

By 11:00 a.m., 2,386,796 Romanians came to the polls in the elections for the European Parliament, the voter turnout thus being 13.24%. For comparison, five years ago at the European Parliament, 1,933,226 Romanians had voted by 11:00, with a turnout of 10.58%.

The turnout for the 2024 European Parliament elections recorded a large number of voters aged between 65 and 69, also representing the largest share of voters – over 460,000 at 13:05. The percentage of attendance in this age category is higher among women (over 247,000), according to data collected by the Informat.ro .

The second most present age group at MEPs is 55-59 years (over 420,000), with a higher presence among men (over 220,000). At the same time, a large presence was registered among the age groups 50-54 (411,692) and 70-74 (388,138).

The least represented age categories are 85-119 (58,711), 80-84 (119,155), followed by young people between 25 and 29 years old (170,341).

In contrast, the 18-24 age group, which represents the youngest voters, recorded a voter turnout of 240,043, of which more than 117,000 are women and almost 123,000 are men.

Overall, at 1:15 p.m., 23.2% of Romanians with the right to vote voted in the European Parliament elections, i.e. 4,186,678 out of 18,016,674 registered voters. Of these, 67,986 voted in the diaspora.

Sociologist Barbu Mateescu says that the attendance at the European elections until noon, higher than at the previous polls, is due to a greater mobilization of elderly voters.

“The question for the following hours is simple: will there be a similar mobilization in the second part of the day but for the 18-45 age group?Or will attendance level off to 2019 or below? If the second scenario occurs, the average (or median) voter in these elections will be significantly older than the average (or median) voter in the 2019 European Parliament elections,” added the sociologist.

Exit polls revealed although law bans them

From political sources we learned partial results for the Capital City Hall, at 1:00 p.m. According to the sources, these partial results are: Nicușor Dan – 37%, Gabriela Firea – 26%, Cristian Popescu Piedone – 16% and Sebastian Burduja – 12%.

The first exit poll results at 11:00 a.m. (political sources).

According to political sources, the first exit poll results for the European parliamentary elections at 11:00 a.m. show the following: PSD-PNL alliance – 51% AUR – 18% United Right Alliance – 12%, Digi24 reported.

The race for Bucharest

The incumbent mayor of the capital, Nicușor Dan, came to vote and emphasized, in the statement provided to the press, that he voted “for realism in public life” and “against the real estate mafia”. “I voted for honesty in public life, for realism in public life, it is important that politicians tell us where we are and what we can do.And I voted against the real estate mafia”, declared Nicușor Dan, upon leaving the polling station.

Former Bucharest mayor during 2016-2020, Gabriela Firea, currently running for a new term on behalf of PSD, voted on Sunday around 11:00 a.m. in the local and European parliamentary elections.

“I voted with the people in mind who want to have the parks clean again, who want to see that work is being done on the construction sites, that there are results regarding traffic streamlining and heating,” said Gabriela Firea. “I voted with a lot of optimism because Bucharest is such a beautiful city, but which has recently been abandoned,” she added. The PSD candidate for Bucharest was accompanied to the vote by the party’s president, Marcel Ciolacu.

PNL candidate for Bucharest City Hall, Sebastian Burduja was confident about his chances in the elections, in the statements made after the vote. “I trust the people of Bucharest, I was in the streets during this whole period and I felt that they want something else from this city,” declared Sebastian Burduja. “From tomorrow we get down to business, win and fight.”

George Simion, president of the AUR, and Cristian Popescu Piedone, the PUSL candidate for the Capital City Hall, are among the first politicians to go to the polls first thing in the morning.

The AUR leader voted at the “Gheorghe Lazăr din Bucharest” High School for the European Parliament elections and will then go to Vrancea to vote for the local ones. “All we want is a fair vote. I chose to vote here in Bucharest in the European Parliament and I will go to Vrancea, where I live, to vote in the local elections.We voted for the future, we voted for change,” said Simion, quoted by Euronews Romania.

Cristian Popescu Piedone, running for the Capital mayor sear from PUSL voted immediately after the opening of the polling stations, together with his son who is a candidate for the District 5 City Hall. “It will be a bit complicated today with so many ballots.Gentlemen, you have a hard life today,” Piedone told those present, according to Euronews.“There are problems that all people will face today, it’s important to be patient. I have reliable information, people will migrate from the sea and the mountains and they will come for the last hundred meters”.

President Klaus Iohannis voted at the “Jean Monnet” High School section in the capital. “Today is an important day, a day when we elect those who lead the communities in which we live and we elect those who represent us in the European Parliament,” said the president after the vote. “I voted and I invite all of you to vote, it is extremely important,” said the head of state.

USR notifies over allegedly stamped ballots

USR announces that it has requested the suspension of voting in a polling station in Bucharest, on the grounds that it found already stamped ballots. “This morning, at Section 190, the police were called after they found 4 ballots already stamped with PSD-PNL. The first ballot was discovered even by a voter, then 3 others were found on the tables of PSD-PNL representatives. After the police made checks, they allowed the resumption of the voting process. After the police left, another stamped ballot was discovered.The fifth”, says USR in a statement.

Exit poll results sent by Sebastian Burduja during the elections, although the law prohibits it

The candidate of the National Liberal Party for the Mayor of the Capital, Sebastian Burduja, sent via WhatsApp messages on Sunday the results of an alleged exit poll that placed him immediately behind the current mayor Nicușor Dan, although the electoral legislation prohibits the transmission of the results of exit polls until at the time of closing the polling stations, writes the Media Investigations Center.

“It is an obvious violation of article 75, paragraph 2 of law 115/2015, the law that establishes the rules according to which local elections are organized,” Maria Krause, a specialist in legislation and electoral procedures in the team, told the Media Investigation Center (CIM) the “Vot Correct” NGO coalition. According to the CIM, the article indicated by Krause explicitly states this: “(2) On the day of voting, it is forbidden to present the polls taken at the exit from the polling stations, before the closing of the voting”.

Member of SOS, accused of offering money to voters in Ștefănestii de Jos

Scandal with masks in Ștefăneștii de Jos, in Ilfov. Police are investigating after a man was caught with wads of cash that he allegedly intended to hand out to voters to vote for a particular candidate. He was stopped and surrounded by special forces and searched.

A person reported to 112, around 12.20, that a man was offering envelopes of money to people to get them to vote with certain people. In the notification, it was claimed that the man was driving a car with the number Ilfov, and was handing out sums of money to people, in an electoral context.

The police officers spotted the car at around 12:40, in the town of Ștefăneşti de Jos, and upon identification, it was established that the vehicle was driven by Dumitru Claudiu Vicentiu, a member of the SOS party. During the searches, several envelopes with sums of money and lists of names were found in the car.

The live turnout is available at: https://prezenta.roaep.ro/locale09062024/.

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