The president of the Young People’s Party (POT) Anamaria Gavrila announced on Wednesday evening her withdrawal from the race for the presidential elections in May, in favor of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) leader, George Simion, who remains the sovereignists’ candidate.

After the Constitutional Court (CCR) decided to reject Calin Georgescu’s candidacy for the presidential elections, the leaders of AUR and POT, George Simion and, respectively, Anamaria Gavrila, who supported Georgescu’s candidacy in recent months, decided to both enter the race for the Cotroceni Palace.

„Both George Simion and I, Anamaria Gavrila, will submit our candidacies. We need you to be with us. As a result of the final validation of these candidacies, one of us will withdraw,” the POT leader stated on March 12 in a Facebook video.

The two later submitted their candidacies separately to the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC), but had to wait for the final decision of the Constitutional Court, given that several appeals were against the registration of their candidacies.

Wednesday was the last day in which the CCR analyzed such appeals, according to the electoral calendar, with the candidacies remaining final starting Thursday.

Wednesday is also the last day in which those who registered their candidacies with the BEC can withdraw from the race for Cotroceni.

Under these conditions, the sovereignist camp will be represented in the May election race by the president of AUR, George Simion. He was the AUR candidate in the presidential election last autumn. According to the final results of the BEC, George Simion ranked fourth, obtaining 1,281,325 valid votes, i.e. 13.86%.

AGERPRES