The Alliance for the Romanians’ Union (AUR), a new party with ultra-nationalist rhetoric, received 26.51% of the votes cast in the diaspora, according to the partial results quoted by G4media.ro.

The USR-PLUS alliance received 29.09% of the votes, after the ballots in 439 of the 748 voting sections (58.68%) outside of the country were counted. 

The ruling Liberal Party PNL came third, with 25.52% of the votes, followed by PMP, the party of former president Traian Basescu, with 7% of the votes. 

The Social Democrat Party PSD gathered 4% of the votes, followed by independent Ștefan Voloșeniuc, with 2.27% of the votes. He is a London-based entrepreneur who developed a civil engineering company which currently has a turnover of close to GBP 30 million a year and employs a staff of 150. 

PRO Romania, the party of former PM Victor Ponta, received 2.19% of the votes, while the Hungarian Democratic Union UDMR received 1.86% of the votes.

Close to 250,000 Romanians living abroad voted in the parliamentary elections this year, more than double compared to four years ago, when there were only 106,000. However, the presence was under a third of that recorded in the second round of the presidential elections in 2019, when over 900,000 Romanians voted abroad.

When it comes to regional preferences, the first results show PNL first in most of the counties in Transylvania and Banat (Sibiu, Alba, Cluj, Arad, Bihor, Caraș-Severin, Sălaj, Bistrița Năsăud, and Maramureș), according to data presented by G4media.ro. The USR-PLUS alliance came first in the voters’ preferences in Brașov and Timiș, two counties were the largest cities, Brașov and Timișoara, are led by mayors from the same alliance. UDMR came first in Satu Mare, Mureș, Harghita, and Covasna.

Meanwhile, PSD came first in most of Moldavia and southern Romania, with PNL managing to score first only in Vrancea, Giurgiu, Constanța, and Ilfov. USR-PLUS gathered the most votes in Bucharest. 

(Photo: Carol Robert/ Dreamstime)

editor@romania-insider.com