Romania annuls first round of presidential votes won by far-right candidate

Romania’s top court annulled the first round of presidential elections on Friday over allegations that Russia interfered to prop up far-right outsider Calin Georgescu, who won the first round.

The unprecedented, binding decision from the country’s Constitutional Court means that the second round run-off election scheduled for Sunday, which would have pitted Georgescu and his centrist rival Elena Lasconi against each other, has been canceled.

Sitting president President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that revealed Russia ran a sweeping social media campaign consisting of thousands of accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram.

Georgescu, an outsider nationalist who claimed he spent zero money campaigning, suddenly emerged as the front-runner on Nov. 24.

A new date to re-do the first round will be determined.

Nearly 1,000 voting stations had already opened abroad Friday for Romania’s diaspora in anticipation of the second round before they were abruptly shut down.

Lasconi, who claims she would have won, slammed the court’s decision as “illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy.”

“We should have moved forward with the vote. We should have respected the will of the Romanian people. Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes. We cannot ignore their will!” she said.

“I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania. I will defend our democracy. I will not give up.”

The issue of Russian interference should be dealt with after the election, she said.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the annulment was “the only correct solution” after the intelligence revealed the “Romanian people’s vote was flagrantly distorted as a result of Russian interference.”

Ciolacu called on the country’s authorities to “uncover who is responsible for the massive attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election.”

The Romanian election has been mired in controversies. The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which it initially validated on Monday before the intelligence documents were released.

Thirteen candidates ran in the first round.

Georgescu, 62, kicked off his presidential bid with single-digit polling numbers, but narrowly bested Lasconi in the first round with 22.9% of the vote compared to her 19.2%, according to CNN.

Georgescu boasts some 541,000 followers on TikTok — but officials suspect the numbers were bloated by Russia.

Romania’s secret service alleged that one TikTok user paid more $381,000 to other users to promote Georgescu content. 

Intelligence authorities said information they obtained “revealed an aggressive promotion campaign” to rapidly boost his popularity.

One of the declassified documents revealed that  there had been 85,000 attempted cyber-attacks on election websites and IT systems, CNN reported. Authorities concluded that “the attacker has considerable resources specific to an attacking state.”

The decision to void the election came a day after hundreds of protesters supporting Lasconi turned up for a rally in the capital city of Bucharest.

Georgescu, while not outrightly pro-Russian, had previously called Ukraine an “invented state” and declared he wants to work for “peace with everyone, regardless of who they are.”

Asked in an Associated Press interview Wednesday whether he believes the Chinese-owned TikTok poses a threat to democracy, Georgescu responded: “The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media.”

The president of the NATO nation serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

With Post Wires