With almost 98% of the votes counted, Romania's independent presidential candidate Nicusor Dan has an insurmountable lead over the Alliance for the Reunification of Romanians (AOR) candidate Giorgio Simion.

Dan won 54.28% of the vote against 45.65% for the far-right Simion.

More precisely, Dan has a lead of about 830,000 votes - and growing.

Although only 65% of the overseas vote has been counted and Simion leads there by about 55% to 45%, that margin appears to be widening. It seems impossible for Simion to reverse the result.

However, the ultranationalist has not given up yet and has declared victory.

"We are the clear winners of this election," he said. "We declare our victory in the name of the Romanian people." Simion claims he actually beat Dan by 400,000 votes.

The far-right candidate promised that a parallel recount by his party's AOR activists would "ensure that any potential fraud is detected", although he admitted that he had not seen any so far. It is unclear what steps he might take to challenge the results.

Sergiu Misiou, a political scientist at Babes-Bolyai University, said protests by Simion supporters in the coming days were not ruled out.

The second round of the presidential election was held in record turnout. 9,996,408 (64.72%) went to the polls on 18 May. 1,645,458 voted abroad.

Earlier on 18 May, Romania's foreign ministry said the country had taken measures against Russian interference in the electoral process. 

"During the presidential elections in Romania, we are again seeing signs of Russian interference. A viral campaign with fake news on Telegram and other social networks aims to influence the electoral process. This was expected and the authorities have removed the fake news," wrote Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Cărnea in X.

The Interior Ministry announced the removal of more than 160 TikTok accounts that illegally used insignia, names or graphic elements related to the Romanian police or other ministry structures.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has denied all allegations of Russian interference in Romania's elections.

"First of all, I would ask you not to call this an election," Zakharova said.

"Secondly, it is not possible to interfere in something like this just to have problems. So we will not allow them to smear anyone with their electoral activities. Wash out!" the spokeswoman added.

The run-off was held nearly six months after the first round of the presidential election was annulled due to alleged Russian meddling, which originated in Moscow, in favour of far-right leader Kalin Djordescu, who is banned from running again. | BGNES