Romania’s top court on Friday annulled the first round of presidential elections over allegations that Russia interfered to boost far-right outsider Calin Georgescu, who won in the first round.
The unprecedented, binding ruling by the country’s constitutional court means a second round of elections scheduled for Sunday, which would have pitted Georgescu and his centrist rival Elena Lasconi against each other, has been cancelled.
Current President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday made public intelligence that showed Russia had conducted a massive social media campaign that included thousands of accounts for propaganda purposes. Calin Georgescu On platforms like TikTok and Telegram.
Georgescu, an outsider nationalist who claimed to have spent no money on the election campaign, suddenly emerged as the front-runner on 24 November.
A new date will be decided to repeat the first round.
About 1,000 polling stations abroad had already been opened for Romanian immigrants in anticipation of the second round, but were suddenly closed.
Lasconi, who claims she would have won, described the court’s decision as “illegal, immoral and crushing the essence of democracy.”
“We should have gone ahead with the vote. We should have respected the will of the Romanian people. Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate point of view, 9 million Romanian citizens, both at home and in the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes. We cannot ignore their wishes!” He said.
“I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know that I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania. I will protect our democracy. I will not give up.”
The issue of Russian interference should be dealt with after the elections, he said.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the annulment was “the only right solution” after intelligence revealed “the Romanian people’s vote was clearly distorted as a result of Russian interference”.
Ciolacu called on the country’s authorities to “reveal who is responsible for the large-scale attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election.”
Romania’s elections are surrounded by controversies. The same court last week ordered a recount of the first round of votes, which was validated on Monday, before the intelligence documents were released.
Thirteen candidates ran in the first round.
Georgescu, 62, began his presidential bid with single-digit polling numbers, but narrowly defeated Lasconi in the first round with 22.9% of the vote compared to his 19.2%. According to CNN,
Georgescu has about 541,000 followers on TikTok — but authorities suspect that number is inflated by Russia.
Romania’s secret service alleged that a TikTok user paid other users more than $381,000 to promote Georgescu content.
Intelligence officials said the information they received “revealed an aggressive propaganda campaign” to rapidly boost his popularity.
According to CNN report, one of the documents made public revealed that cyber attacks were attempted 85,000 times on election websites and IT systems. Officials concluded that “the attacker has substantial resources typical of the attacked state.”
The decision to cancel the election came a day after hundreds of protesters supporting Lasconi came to the capital Bucharest for a rally.
Georgescu, although not entirely pro-Russian, has previously called Ukraine an “invented state” and declared that he wants to “work for peace with everyone, no matter who they are.”
Asked in an Associated Press interview on Wednesday whether he believed Chinese-owned TikTok was a threat to democracy, Georgescu responded: “The most important current task is to promote free speech and freedom of expression.” It’s social media.”
The President of a NATO nation serves a five-year term and has the power to make important decisions in areas such as national security, foreign policy, and judicial appointments.
with post wire
