BUCHAREST, Romania, May 18, (AP): Romanians were voting on Sunday in a tense presidential runoff between a hard-right nationalist and a pro-Western centrist in a high-stakes election rerun that could determine the geopolitical direction of the European Union and NATO member country. The race pits front-runner George Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, against incumbent Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan.

It comes months after the cancelation of the previous election plunged Romania into its worst political crisis in decades. Polls opened at 7 am local time and will close at 9 pm (1800 GMT). In the first two hours of voting, more than 1.7 million people - or about 9.5% of eligible voters - had cast ballots, according to official electoral data. Romanians abroad have been able to vote since Friday at specially set-up polling stations, and more than 750,000 have already voted.

Romania’s political landscape was upended last year when a top court voided the previous election after far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round polls, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow denied. Simion appeared alongside Georgescu at a Bucharest polling station on Sunday and told reporters that he voted against the "humiliations to which our sisters and brothers have been subjected.”

"We voted against abuses and against poverty. We voted against those who look down on all of us,” he said. "I voted for our future to be decided only by Romanians, for Romanians and Romania. So help us God!” Years of endemic corruption and growing anger toward Romania’s political establishment have fueled a surge in support for anti-establishment and hard-right figures, reflecting a broader pattern across Europe.

Both Simion and Dan have made their political careers railing against Romania’s old political class. Most recent local surveys indicate the runoff will be tight, after earlier ones showed Simion holding a lead over Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician who rose to prominence as a civic activist fighting against illegal real estate projects. After voting in his hometown of Fagaras, Dan told reporters that he voted for Romanians "who are quiet, honest, and hardworking, and who have not felt represented for a long time.”