By Elizaveta Gladun and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta joined the race for May’s presidential election re-run on Wednesday, throwing the contest wide open after pro-Russian far-right candidate Calin Georgescu was barred from running.
Romania is set to repeat its two-round presidential election on May 4 and 18 after the Constitutional Court voided the initial ballot in December following accusations of Russian meddling in Georgescu’s favour, denied by Moscow and Georgescu.
With the hard right scrambling before Saturday’s deadline to replace Georgescu, who had been leading the opinion polls, Ponta, a former Social Democrat Party leader who has moved to the right in the past year, could pick up votes from both wings of Romania’s politics.
Analysts have said Ponta could sway some Georgescu voters away from whoever the hard-right parties put forward – giving him a chance of reaching the second round, where he could face Nicusor Dan, the centrist mayor of capital Bucharest, who had been showing as Georgescu’s main contender in some of the polls.
Romania’s president has a semi-executive role which includes chairing the council that decides on military aid and defence spending.
They can also veto EU votes that require unanimity, making the role particularly important at a time when the bloc is trying to increase defence spending and develop its Ukraine strategy as the U.S. works towards brokering a peace deal.
Ponta, who resigned as prime minister in November 2015 in the wake of a fatal nightclub fire, said he had collected the 200,000 required signatures to support his candidacy.
As he announced he was running, he backed what he called the “radical change” taking place in the United States and courted voters with an ultranationalist leaning – while also backing the country’s role in the EU and NATO.
“Only Romanians should decide who will lead, not anyone from outside the country, not institutions, not organizations – only Romania,” Ponta told reporters.
“Power must be returned to the people, taken back from systems, organisations, and parties that have seized it over the years,” he said. “I believe that only through this change can we have a future both in Romania and in Europe.”
His candidacy will need to be validated by the central election bureau.
Crin Antonescu, a centrist backed by the three parties in the ruling coalition, is also running for the presidency.
The hard right parties have said it is up to Georgescu to endorse a replacement. He told his supporters on Tuesday to follow their conscience in supporting other candidates.
(Reporting by Elizaveta Gladun and Luiza Ilie, and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw; Editing by Alison Williams)
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