Bucharest (Romania), May 5 (AP) Hard-right nationalist George Simion is set to secure a decisive win in the first round of Romania’s presidential election redo, incomplete electoral data indicates, months after last year’s annulled vote plunged the European Union and NATO member country into its worst political crisis in decades.

Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, or AUR, is far outpacing all other candidates in the polls with 40.4% of the vote, official electoral data shows after 85% of votes were counted.

Far behind in second place is the governing coalition’s joint candidate, Crin Antonescu, with 21.2 per cent, and in third place Bucharest mayor, Nicusor Dan with 18.8 per cent — but that gap is widely expected to narrow as votes from larger cities are counted. (AP) NB