Romania Halts Presidential Election Run-Off Amid Russia Meddling Claims
By Marian Chiriac
In an unprecedent move, Romania’s top court on Friday ordered a re-run of the country’s presidential elections amid alleged manipulation of public opinion by a “foreign state” in favour of independent, far-right candidate Calin Georgescu – the surprise winner of the first round of the polls last month.
The Constitutional Court said it was annulling “the entire electoral process concerning the election of the president of Romania” so far, as procedures for a free vote were not upheld.
The government will set a new date for the elections, and the process will restart from the beginning, the court added.
The move comes just two days before the second-round run-off between Georgescu and Elena Lasconi, leader of the centrist, pro-EU Save Romania Union party, was due to be held.
Intense speculation had erupted this week followed declassification of documents by Romania’s security agency on Wednesday, which claimed that paid influencers had boosted TikTok accounts promoting Georgescu in the lead-up to the first round of presidential elections on November 24.
The documents also revealed compromised login credentials for Romanian election websites and reported over 85,000 cyberattacks during the election. Romania’s intelligence agency stated that the scale, methods and coordination of the campaign strongly suggested involvement by a foreign state.
On Thursday, the Prosecutor’s Office at the High Court of Cassation and Justice launched an investigation following indications of potential electoral crimes and money laundering.
“The investigation targeted indications regarding electoral crimes that would have influenced the voting process, through methods such as corrupting voters, including in the online environment, with the aim of determining them to vote for a certain candidate,” said a Prosecutor’s Office press release.
Several civil society organisations then submitted notifications to the court requesting the annulment of the results from the first round of the presidential elections.
Defying all predictions, populist, NATO-sceptic and Russia-friendly politician Georgescu won the first round – signalling that EU member state Romania had joined the growing trend towards the far-right in the region.
He did most of his campaigning on TikTok, and was little covered by the media until his surprise win.
Under the Romanian constitution, the president wields considerable power – including oversight of foreign and defence policy and responsibility for appointing the prime minister.