Romanians cast ballots in presidential race that could pit nationalist against leftist in a runoff

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanians are casting ballots on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that could pit a far-right nationalist against the incumbent leftist prime minister in the runoff.

Thirteen candidates are vying for the presidency in the European Union and NATO member country, and the vote is expected to go to a second round on Dec. 8. Polls opened at 7.00 a.m. local time (0500GMT) and will close at 9.00 p.m. (1900GMT). Romanians abroad have been able to vote since Friday.

The final vote could see George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, face off against incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who is backed by Romania’s largest party, the Social Democratic Party or PSD.

The presidential role carries a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy, and judicial appointments.

Romania will also hold parliamentary elections on Dec. 1 that will determine the country's next government and prime minister.

Simion, 38, is a vocal supporter of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and has long been a figure of controversy. He campaigned for reunification with Moldova, which this year renewed a five-year ban on him entering the country over security concerns, and he is banned for the same reason from entering neighboring Ukraine.

“I would like that in the next five to ten years, for Romanians to be really proud to be Romanians, to promote Romanian culture, Romanian products,” he told reporters on Wednesday in the capital, Bucharest. “As a Romanian president, I will promote Romanian interests. In most cases, Romanian interests coincide with partner interests.”

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, says Sunday's vote will be "a tight race" in which the diaspora will likely play a key role in which candidates make it to the runoff.

“We are at a point where Romania can easily divert or slip toward a populist regime because (voter) dissatisfaction is pretty large among a lot of people from all social strata," he told The Associated Press. “And the temptation for any regime, any leader — will be to go on a populist road.”

He added that Romania's large budget deficit, high inflation, and an economic slowdown could push more mainstream candidates to shift toward populist stances amid widespread dissatisfaction.

Ciolacu told the AP that if he is elected, one of his biggest goals is “to convince Romanians that it is worth staying at home or returning” to Romania, which has a massive diaspora spread throughout EU countries.

“Romania has a huge chance to become a developed economy in the next 10 years, where honest work is fairly rewarded and people have the security of a better life," he said. "But for this, we need balance and responsibility ... I am running for the Presidency of Romania because we need a change.”

Other key candidates include Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party; former NATO deputy general secretary Mircea Geoana, who is running independently; and Nicolae Ciuca, a former army general and head of the center-right National Liberal Party, which is currently in a tense coalition with the PSD.

Geoana, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, told the AP that he believes his international experience qualifies him above the other candidates. “I think I bring a lot of competence and experience and connections in this complicated world,” he said.

Lasconi, a former journalist and the leader of USR, said she sees corruption as one of the biggest problems Romania faces and that she supports increased defense spending and continued aid to Ukraine.

Romania has been a staunch ally of war-torn Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. But Simion of the AUR party said he opposes Romania — which has sent a Patriot missile system to Ukraine — contributing further military aid and that he hopes Trump can “stop the war.”

In 2020, the AUR party went from relative obscurity to gaining 9% in a parliamentary vote, allowing it to enter parliament. Opponents have long accused Simion and AUR of being extremists, charges he denies.

“We are sort of a Trumpist party in this new wave of patriotic political parties in Europe,” Simion said.

Former NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana, who runs as an independent candidate in the upcoming Nov. 24 presidential elections, speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his campaign headquarters in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Nicolae Ciuca, the National Liberal Party or PNL candidate in the upcoming Nov. 24 presidential elections, attends an event launching his presidential program in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

A man installs a large poster of Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, the Social Democratic Party or PSD candidate in the upcoming Nov. 24 presidential elections, in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu addresses delegates at the congress of the Social Democratic Party or PSD, which nominated him as the party's candidate in the upcoming Nov. 24 presidential elections in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

George Simion, the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians or AUR candidate in the upcoming Nov. 24 presidential elections, attends a press conference with international media in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

A man walks by panels displaying electoral posters ahead of the Nov. 24 presidential elections in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

A young man stands by panels displaying electoral posters ahead of the Nov. 24 presidential elections in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

A man rides a bicycle passing panels displaying electoral posters ahead of the Nov. 24 presidential elections in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

SADO, Japan (AP) — Japan held a memorial ceremony on Sunday near the Sado Island Gold Mines despite a last-minute boycott of the event by South Korea that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the issue of Korean forced laborers at the site before and during World War II.

South Korea’s absence at Sunday’s memorial, to which Seoul government officials and Korean victims’ families were invited, is a major setback in the rapidly improving ties between the two countries, which since last year have set aside their historical disputes to prioritize U.S.-led security cooperation.

The Sado mines were listed in July as a UNESCO World Heritage site after Japan moved past years of disputes with South Korea and reluctantly acknowledged the mines’ dark history, promising to hold an annual memorial service for all victims, including hundreds of Koreans who were mobilized to work in the mines.

On Saturday, South Korea announced it would not attend the event, saying it was impossible to settle unspecified disagreements between the two governments in time.

Families of Korean victims of the mine accidents were expected to separately hold their own ceremony near the mine at a later date.

Masashi Mizobuchi, an assistant press secretary in Japan’s Foreign Ministry, said Japan has been in communication with Seoul and called the South Korean decision “disappointing.”

The ceremony was held as planned on Sunday at a facility near the mines, where more than 20 seats for Korean attendees remained vacant.

The 16th-century mines on the island of Sado, off Japan’s north-central coast, operated for nearly 400 years before closing in 1989 and were once the world’s largest gold producer.

Historians say about 1,500 Koreans were mobilized to Sado as part of Japan’s use of hundreds of thousands of Korean laborers, including those forcibly brought from the Korean Peninsula, at Japanese mines and factories to make up for labor shortages because most working-age Japanese men had been sent to battlefronts across Asia and the Pacific.

Japan’s government has maintained that all wartime compensation issues between the two countries were resolved under a 1965 normalization treaty.

South Korea had long opposed the listing of the site as World Heritage on the grounds that the Korean forced laborers, despite their key role in the wartime mine production, were missing from the exhibition. Seoul's backing for Sado came as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol prioritized improving relations with Japan.

The Japanese government said Sunday’s ceremony was to pay tribute to “all workers” who died at the mines, but would not spell out inclusion of Korean laborers — part of what critics call a persistent policy of whitewashing Japan’s history of sexual and labor exploitation before and during the war.

Preparation for the event by local organizers remained unclear until the last minute, which was seen as a sign of Japan’s reluctance to face its wartime brutality.

Japan’s government said on Friday that Akiko Ikuina — a parliamentary vice minister who reportedly visited Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine in August 2022, weeks after she was elected as a lawmaker — would attend the ceremony. Japan’s neighbors view Yasukuni, which commemorates 2.5 million war dead including war criminals, as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Ikuina belonged to a Japanese ruling party faction of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who led the whitewashing of Japan's wartime atrocities in the 2010s during his leadership.

For instance, Japan says the terms “sex slavery” and “forced labor” are inaccurate and insists on the use of highly euphemistic terms such as “comfort women” and “civilian workers” instead.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said Saturday that Ikuina’s Yasukuni visit was an issue of contention between the countries’ diplomats.

“That issue and various other disagreements between diplomatic officials remain unresolved, and with only a few hours remaining until the event, we concluded that there wasn’t sufficient time to resolve these differences,” Cho said in an interview with MBN television.

Some South Koreans had criticized Yoon’s government for supporting the event without securing a clear Japanese commitment to highlight the plight of Korean laborers. There were also complaints over South Korea agreeing to pay for the travel expenses of Korean victims’ family members to Sado.

Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.

Visitors walk though a tunnel at Sado Kinzan Gold Mine historic site in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A visitor tries to pick up a gold bar at Sado Kinzan Gold Mine historic site in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Guests offer a moment of silence during a memorial ceremony for the Sado Island Gold Mine in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Guests offer a moment of silence during a memorial ceremony for the Sado Island Gold Mine in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People visit remains of a Sado gold mine are seen on Sado Island, northern Japan, on Aug. 26, 2024. (Yasufumi Fujita/Kyodo News via AP)

Guests offer a moment of silence during a memorial ceremony for the Sado Island Gold Mine in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, as several seats reserved for South Korean guests remained empty Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Mayor of Sado City Ryugo Watanabe delivers a speech during a memorial ceremony for the Sado Island Gold Mine in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Visitors look at display at Sado Kinzan Gold Mine historic site in Sado, Niigata prefecture, Japan, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)