World Tour: Presidential elections in Europe

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Nigeria, Onize Oduah.

SOUND: [Cheering]

ONIZE ODUAH: European elections — We begin today with election outcomes in Europe.

In Romania, Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan emerged winner of a presidential rerun. It comes five months after the constitutional court annulled an earlier vote and disqualified a far-right frontrunner over allegations of Russian influence.

Senior U.S. officials had criticized the canceled vote.

Dan campaigned on a pro-European Union pathway backing ties with the West, fiscal reform, and support for Ukraine. Mihai Vasile joined others on the streets to celebrate the outcome.

MIHAI VASILE: [ROMANIAN] For me, that's what the elections were about: staying in the European Union or going East.

He says here that the vote represented a choice between staying in the E-U, or developing closer relations with countries like Russia and other eastern European nations.

SOUND: [Supporters]

And in Portugal, the outcome of its third election in three years was less decisive.

The incumbent center-right Democratic Alliance party won the most seats, but failed again to secure a parliamentary majority.

Party leader and incumbent Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has said he is open to deals with some opposition parties.

LUIS MONTENEGRO: [PORTUGUESE] The Portuguese don't want any more early elections, they want a four-year term and they demand that everyone understands, respects and honours their free and democratic word.

He says here that the Portuguese are done with elections and want a leader to serve for a four-year term.

The country’s ceremonial president has called the parties together to begin talks of forming another minority government.

Colombia merges with China — Next, to Colombia, where authorities have agreed to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The announcement followed a bilateral summit this month between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

China is Colombia’s second-largest trading partner after the United States.

The State Department has said it would oppose any financing of projects linked to China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America. Petro said Colombia has the right to freely choose its partners.

GUSTAVO PETRO: [SPANISH] I hope this can pave the way for expanded commodities trade between our countries.

He says here that he hopes the agreement will pave the way for expanded trade between the countries.

More than 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries have already joined the project, which seeks to expand China’s global trade and infrastructure links.

South Africa pageant — We end today with a granny pageant in South Africa.

Family members gathered to watch their elderly loved ones walk down the red carpet as they cheered. Contestants wore their colorful Sunday best.

Seventy-two-year-old Joyce Malindi was one of the contestants.

JOYCE MALINDI: I feel happy today, it brings my memories back, where I came from, it takes me back to my youth days, when I was still young, when I still know that I was sure of myself.

Nearly 4 in 10 South African children are raised by their grandparents.

Bridget Thusi is a mayoral committee member in the city of Ekurhuleni.

BRIDGET THUSI: You know often times the minute they take pension they are forgotten citizens, and all they do is look after great grand children and grandchildren, so to have programs like this where they are celebrated and to forget their problems that they’ve got at home, it was really really an amazing thing to see.

78-year old Margaret Fatyela took home the silver crown and a modest tea set. She told AFP she feels young again, and capable of “doing everything.”

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

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