The Central Election Bureau, or BEC, rejected Diana Sosoaca’s bid, which was filed on Thursday in the capital, Bucharest. She said she will appeal the bureau’s decision, which has to be submitted to the Constitutional Court within 24 hours.

Romania's populist far-right politician George Simion is making his bid for the country's presidential election rerun in May as he seeks to rally nationalist voters after a controversial frontrunner was barred from the race last year.

Controversial Romanian politician Diana Sosoaca, who was barred by a top court from entering last year’s annulled presidential election, filed her candidacy on Thursday in an unlikely bid to enter the May rerun.

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.