BUCHAREST, Romania—A little-known, right-wing populist took the lead in Romania’s presidential election Sunday, electoral data showed, and will likely face leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in a runoff in two weeks.
Calin Georgescu, who ran independently, led the polls with around 22 percent of the vote, while Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party, or PSD, trailed at 20 percent. Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party, or USR, stood at about 18 percent, and George Simion, the leader of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, took 14.1 percent.
