The Constitutional Court will rule on requests to annul the results of the first round of elections.
Social network TikTok flouted laws governing the electoral process during Sunday’s presidential election in Romania, in which the constitutional court ordered a recount. This was stated on Thursday by the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT), which coordinates activities related to defense and national security. TASR informs about it based on reports from Reuters and DPA.
In the first round, the 62-year-old independent far-right and pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu surprisingly won with nearly 23 percent of the vote over the centrist candidate Elena Lasconi, who was supported by 19 percent of voters.
TikTok messiah
Georgescu presented his views mainly through TikTok, which earned him the nickname “TikTok’s Messiah”. Among other things, he claims that Romania must be a neutral country. He also singles out Russian President Vladimir Putin, the EU as an enemy of Romanians, and Romania’s Nazi collaborators from the Second World War according to him, they are “heroes”. Among other things, he denies the existence of the disease COVID-19 and says that he has a mission from God to save Romania, the DPA agency summarizes his views. However, as the British newspaper The Guardian writes, he refused to explicitly support Russia in the war in Ukraine.
He broke the regulation
According to the Supreme Council of National Defense, TikTok failed to label Georgescu as a politician in the propaganda material he posted on the platform. The Electoral Commission ordered TikTok to mark the presidential candidates. The identification code issued by this electoral body, which also contains the financial resources of the candidates, should be used for this purpose. TikTok did not do this in the case of Georgesca, and thus, according to CSAT, gave him an advantage over the other candidates.
CSAT is a body whose creation is enshrined in the constitution adopted in 1991. The president of the defense council is the Romanian president and the vice-president is the prime minister. Other members are several ministers, directors of secret services, representatives of the army and the security adviser to the president.
On Friday, Romania’s Constitutional Court is scheduled to rule on requests to annul the results of the first round of elections filed by two unsuccessful candidates, Cristian Terhes and Sebastian Popescu. According to the constitution, the Constitutional Court can declare the results of the presidential election invalid if they are based on fraud and the order of candidates who advanced to the second round was affected.
The second round of elections is scheduled for December 8.
