Surprise in Romania: election results annulled (two days before the second round)

Russia had launched a large-scale campaign to promote the candidate with the most votes in the first round, Calin Georgescu.

The Romanian Constitutional Court canceled the results today of the first round of , held on November 24, two days before the second round — an unprecedented decision, which has definitive character.

The decision was taken after the president Klaus Iohannis having declassified, on Wednesday, information that alleged that the Russia had carried out a large-scale campaignwith thousands of accounts on social networks, to promote the ultranationalist Calin Georgescuwinner of the first round, on platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.

There is also 25,000 TikTok accounts and Telegram groupswhich has been coordinated since 2022, expanded Georgescu’s presencesupported by one million euros in external funding, payments to influencers and advanced techniques to avoid detection of “bots”.

Against expectations and what the surveys, which gave him 6% of voting intentions, Georgescu emerged as the leading candidate on November 24th, with 23% of the votes.

The candidate, considered pro-Russian, declared not having spent anything on the campaign.

Romanians were due to go to the polls on Sunday for the second round of the presidential elections, to choose between Calin Georgescu and the conservative and pro-European Elena Lasconi.

The Constitutional Court of Romania had been validated on Mondayafter a new count, the results of the first round of the presidential elections, held on November 24th and marked by Georgescu’s surprising victory.

In a country in a climate of political turbulence, the Constitutional Court’s decision had clarified the situation and allowed a second round of presidential elections on Sunday, under the conditions initially foreseen.

Romanian Prime Minister supports decision

The Romanian Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Marcel ciolacuqualified as “fair” the STF’s decision to annul the first round of the presidential elections due to Russian interference that favored Calin Georgescu.

“The decision of the Constitutional Court on the annulment of the presidential elections is the only fair solution”, commented Ciolacu in a message on the social network Facebook, adding that the declassified documents show that the result “was blatantly distorted as a consequence of Russia’s intervention.”

The Prime Minister argued that presidential elections must be repeated and that official investigations should clarify who are the culprits of this interference, “solid evidence” is necessary for Romanians to maintain trust in democratic institutions and processes.

“The process of electing the president of Romania will be restarted in its entirety and It is up to the Government to set a new date for the elections”, informed the Constitutional Court in its unprecedented decision in 35 years of democracy in Romania, with 19 million inhabitants and member of the European Union and NATO.

Geogescu’s opponent in the second round, Elena Lasconi, leader of the centrist formation Union Save Romania (USR), criticized the court decision.

“Today is the moment the Romanian state humiliated democracy. God, the Romanian people, truth and law will prevail and punish those guilty of destroying our democracy,” said Lasconi.

In turn, George Simion, leader of the ultranationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), described the decision as a “shame and a blow of State.”

Simion appealed to supporters not to contest the decision on the streets in order to avoid confrontations: “We won’t take to the streets, they won’t provoke us. This system must fall democratically!”

The brief statement announcing the court’s decision did not provide information about the reasons for this annulment, limiting itself to informing that the reasons will be published in full in the Official Gazette.

Marcel Ciolacu defended ser “extremely important to validate mandates of the new Parliament and achieve a pro-European parliamentary majority”, in reference to the legislative elections in which pro-European forces obtained the support of more than 55% of the votes.

In these elections, the three ultranationalist parties obtained more than 30% of the votes.