Romania 2014 - 2/16 November 2014

[Tender Branson]

The run-off is today.

Looks like relatively high turnout (for Romanian standards) so far until 2pm.

Based on the 2pm numbers, final turnout might be between 60-65%.

Don't know enough about Romanian elections though if high turnout benefits Ponta more, or Iohannis.

[Tender Branson]

The situation for Romanians who want to vote abroad at embassies is a catastrophe:

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http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-top_news-18575670-romanians-form-queues-hundreds-meters-defiant-vote-key-presidential-elections.htm

...

There are speculations that the Socialist Ponta-government is deliberately blocking/messing with the embassy voting, because Iohannis crushed Ponta among expats in the first round of voting.

[Tender Branson]

4pm turnout:

44.5% (+9.4% compared with the 1st round)

On track for 62-63% turnout.

That would be the highest turnout since the 1st round of the 2000 election.

[Tender Branson]

Now that's what I call a "line":



Romanian expat voters @ the Paris embassy.

[Tender Branson]

Turnout remains strong: At 7pm, about 59% have voted.

Polls close at 9pm local time, so 63% still looks like the final turnout (+10%).

Pre-election polls showed Ponta winning the run-off by 10%, but I think it will be closer than that.

51-49 (but don't know who wins).

[Tender Branson]

Some 1st round maps:

By province:



By city:

[Tender Branson]

Exit polls show a 50-50 race.

[Tender Branson]

The average of all 5 exit polls:

50.156% Iohannis
49.844% Ponta



Turnout: 64%

[Tender Branson]

It does not even look close. With 14,424/18,847 precincts reporting (if I understand the Romanian right), it is

Iohannis 54.81%
Ponta 45.1%

Iohannis lead is over 850,000 votes. So far, they have counted just over 200,000 foreign votes, so this is not going to be decided by the expats either.

Yeah, the exit polls were wrong.

Good to see the Ponta-crook getting crushed.

Advice for expat-voting next time:

* Allow a 1 week or 10 day early voting period at each foreign embassy (in each round).
* Allow postal voting.
* Increase the polling stations at embassies in the biggest cities with Romanian expats by 10 or 20 times.

The chaos in front of the embassies yesterday was a fu**ing disgrace and the EU or the OSCE should definitely look into it and then hand over a damning report to the incompetent/deliberately obstructing Ponta-crook.

[Tender Branson]

Clickable map:

http://www.gandul.info/rezultate-alegeri-prezidentiale-2014-bec-a-anuntat-rezultatele-oficiale-de-la-ora-09-00-dupa-numararea-voturilor-din-96-5-din-sectii-iohannis-a-castigat-13558244.html

[Tender Branson]

2nd round results map: