Romanian Village Elects Mayor Who Died From Covid Complications Days Before The Election

You just can’t keep a good man down. 

Villagers in Deveselu, South Romania like their mayor so much, they elected him for a third term – despite the fact that he died from Covid-19 complications 10 days before the country’s elections.

Mayor Ion Aliman was reelected in a “landslide” for the village after his death came too close to the election for officials to remove his name from the ballot. He would have been 57 years old on the day of the election. The village is home to about 3,000 people, according to AP. 

Hundreds of villagers went to the polls to vote for Aliman, who won 1,057 of the 1,600 votes that were cast in the village. After the election results came out, villagers visited his grave to pay their respects. 

“This is your victory” some villagers said, surrounding his grave. “We will make you proud, we know that from somewhere up there you are watching.”

Aliman was a member of the country’s left leaning Social Democrat Party who, despite the good local news, lost the Mayoral run in the country’s capital, Bucharest. 

About 19 million voters cast ballots across Romania to elect local officials. The Social Democrat Party is expected to regain power in early December when the country has its Parliamentary vote.