Romanian ambassador in Jakarta Dan Adrian Balanescu told AGERPRES on Sunday that the number of Romanians who turned out to vote in the presidential election at the Romanian mission in Indonesia was not large, as the local Romanian community barely counts 100 people and is scattered across several islands.

"The number of voters is small, indeed (...), but you have to keep in mind that in all of Indonesia, which comprises a flurry of islands, there are maybe up to 100 Romanian residents. I'm not talking about tourists. And it's the residents who generally turn out to vote, or those who happen to be in Jakarta on that day. And there were a few cases of Romanians who were passing through Jakarta during this period and who cast their ballots here. Maybe we're not a very relevant mission, given how small the Romanian community here is. Yet I saw that in other countries, where there are populous Romanian communities, people turned out to vote. There were Romanian nationals who came to vote on Friday and Saturday," said Dan Adrian Balanescu.

He mentioned that he informed the Romanian citizens in Indonesia of the news regarding this year's presidential election through WhatsApp groups.

"They don't read the local press, but we have WhatsApp groups and we discussed individually with them, we presented them our proposal that the polling station be at the embassy and no one had any objection. We informed them about the opening hours, we also uploaded a press release on the embassy's website, so there were no problems from this point of view," Balanescu added.

The diplomat remarked that Indonesia does not have a Romanian community in the true sense of the word, as they are not organized in any way, scattered on various islands. "There are Romanians who live in Jakarta, in Bali, but also in other areas, such as Bandung or Yogyakarta. There are Romanians who carry out various activities or businesses, or digital nomads. And there are also the tourists, the majority, who come mostly to Bali, but also to other islands, and various businesspeople who happen to be here in the voting period."

One of the Romanians who voted in Jakarta on Sunday is Andrei Vrancea, who said that by exercising this right he did his duty as a citizen who would someday want to return home.

"I hold out hope, of course, that's why I voted. I also hold out hope for myself because I hope to return to Romania someday, so, yes, I have high expectations. Because I don't want to stay road-bound like this forever. I will find my place back home. I've only been in Indonesia for four months now, before that I was in Cambodia, and after four years I felt that it was a bit tight there and decided to move to a bigger country. And I plan to stay for at least six years. I have a woodworking business, I moved my workshop from Romania to Cambodia and then to Indonesia. I came for business, not for fun, because Jakarta is not for fun. Here in Indonesia you can't talk about a community of Romanians, in Cambodia I met three Romanians in four years, and in Indonesia I only know the lady at the Embassy. But it's true that I didn't have time either. Indonesia is big, but I think most Romanians are in Bali, not here, and I'm sorry they didn't come to vote. It's a shame there aren't more Romanians here, because the language is easy, it's easier to learn from Romanian rather than from English, and in addition, the people are warm-hearted, they smile all the time," said Andrei Vrancea.

According to real-time data provided by the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), as of 17:00 hrs Romania time, 23 Romanian nationals had turned up to vote at the polling station organized at the Embassy in Jakarta. AGERPRES (RO - author: Adrian Tone, editor: Mariana Ionescu; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)