Romania’s highest court voids the outcome of the presidential election

Following allegations of Russian interference, Romania’s highest court declared on Friday that a presidential election that was scheduled to end this weekend will have to be rerun.

Voting has already started at polling places overseas for the second round, which was supposed to take place on Sunday. It would have matched moderate leader Elena Lasconi, who supports the European Union, against far-right, pro-Russian contender Calin Georgescu.

“The electoral process to elect Romania’s president will be fully re-run, and the government will set a new date and … calendar for the necessary steps,” the court stated in its statement.

Before the first round voting on November 24, Georgescu received single-digit ratings in opinion polls, but he then soared to first position, raising doubts about the outcome.

Georgescu urges Romania to stop defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. Romania would move closer to a belt of central and eastern European nations with strong populist, pro-Russian governments, such as Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria, if he were elected president, upending the pro-Western policies of the EU and NATO members.

The court’s decision on Friday sent the nation into institutional disarray. It was not apparent who would be the head of state after December 21, when the current term of President Klaus Iohannis ended.

According to analysts, the decision might weaken institutions, lead to protests in the streets, and ultimately jeopardize the country’s pro-Western trajectory. Whether Georgescu will be permitted to participate in the rerun election was still up in the air.

Romania was the subject of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period, according to documents released by the country’s highest security council on Wednesday.

Russia has denied meddling in the election campaigns in Romania.

In its Friday reversal, the top court, which had approved the first round of presidential elections on Monday, stated that it was “seeking to ensure the fairness and legality of the electoral process” and that a thorough explanation of its decision will be made public later.

Georgescu did not immediately comment, but he was scheduled to do so on Friday at 1900 GMT.

“Nine politically appointed judges, scared that a candidate outside the system had all chances to become Romania’s president, decided to annul Romanians’ will,” said George Simion, the leader of the hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), the opposition party. Simion referred to the court’s decision as a “coup d’etat.”

In the first round, Simion finished fourth. Georgescu was then approved by him and AUR.

The court’s decision was denounced by Lasconi. “The constitutional court’s decision is illegal, amoral and crushes the very essence of democracy, voting,” she stated.

“The only correct solution” is how Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu defended the action.

CAMPAIGN INVESTIGATION

After reviewing the declassified records, Romania’s anti-organized crime prosecuting body DIICOT announced that it was opening an investigation into Georgescu’s campaign.

“Prosecutors are looking at the commission of the crimes of illegal operations with computer devices or programs, the attempted crime of disrupting the functioning of computer systems and the attempted crime of illegal access to a computer system,” added the statement.

After the first presidential round and a parliamentary election on December 1 in which far-right parties won a third of seats, Sunday’s run-off vote would have been the third consecutive ballot. However, the ruling Social Democrats emerged as the largest grouping and are hoping to form a coalition government that is pro-EU.

The court decision on Friday had no bearing on the parliamentary vote.

Romania’s intelligence service claimed in one of the released documents that Georgescu was heavily promoted on the social media site TikTok using paid advertising, recommendation algorithms, and coordinated accounts. Georgescu has stated that no money has been spent on the campaign.

Georgescu’s account was flagged as a political account and handled like any other, according to TikTok, which denies providing him any treatment.

Additionally, according to the intelligence service, Russian cybercrime platforms revealed access statistics for official Romanian electoral websites. According to the agency, the access data was most likely obtained by either targeting genuine users or by taking advantage of the legitimate training server.

It further stated that it has detected over 85,000 assaults that sought to take advantage of weaknesses in systems.
According to some analysts, Georgescu would not be allowed to run again.

“It is very likely that the court will not permit Calin Georgescu to run again,” stated Babes-Bolyai University political science professor Sergiu Miscoiu.

Analysts claim the court overreached its authority when it barred Diana Sosoaca, the leader of an ultra-nationalist party and a member of the European Parliament, from seeking the presidency earlier this year.

“There will be street protests, people will become radicalized and depending on which candidate from the radical right remains in the race, people will rally around him,” Miscoiu stated.

After the decision, Romania’s hard-currency bonds increased in value. The largest gains were seen in dollar-denominated securities, with the 2048 bond increasing 0.7 cents to be bid at 81.15 cents in the dollar, the highest level since mid-November, according to Tradeweb data.