By Iulian Ernst in Bucharest The leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, will replace Calin Georgescu as the leading far-right candidate in the May presidential elections,

Former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta joined the race for May's presidential election re-run on Wednesday as the hard right worked to ensure they had a candidate in the contest after the ban on pro-Russian Calin Georgescu threw the vote wide open.

Romanian far-right populist Calin Georgescu has appealed the decision to bar him from running in the country’s presidential election rerun.