On Friday, December 6th, the constitutional court of Romania decided to call off the 2nd-round run-off presidential elections in the county scheduled for Sunday, December 8th.
The court said the decision was taken “in order to ensure the fairness and legality of the electoral process.”
The process will be repeated from the beginning after the court said the far-right, pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu won the first round with alleged support from “state and non-state entities.”
The process to elect the president of Romania will be restarted in its entirety, the court said. The Romanian government will schedule a new date for the elections.
The ruling was issued after various entities, including NGOs, challenged the fairness of the electoral process in the context of the reports submitted by intelligence services to the state security council.
Investigations by several state agencies indicated as much as €50 million could have been spent to support Georgescu’s presidential campaign, in particular by boosting his presence on TikTok.
Georgescu is known for his extreme nationalist rhetoric, broadcast via TikTok and other social media channels, while he has also questioned Romania’s NATO membership and recently said that if elected he will ban Ukrainian grain exports via Romania.
Georgescu was running against pro-EU candidate Elena Lasconi, leader of the reformist Union Save Romania (USR) in the second round on December 8.
Meanwhile, the European Union has intensified its scrutiny of TikTok, issuing a retention order under the Digital Services Act (DSA) to address concerns about potential manipulation during Romania’s elections.
