Romania’s top court annuls results of presidential election’s first round
Al Jazeera
Constitutional Court says move aims to ensure ‘correctness, legality’ of process amid Russian interference claims.
Romania’s top court has annulled the results of the first round of the country’s presidential election and said the process must be re-run, after allegations that Russia ran a coordinated campaign to promote the far-right candidate who emerged as the winner.
The Constitutional Court’s decision on Friday — which is final — came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence this week that alleged Romania was the target of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period.
The alleged effort included thousands of social media accounts that promoted far-right populist Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.
The court has decided “to annul the entire electoral process for the election of the President of Romania … to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process”, it said in Friday’s decision.
Georgescu — a pro-Russian candidate who wants to end Romania’s support for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion — emerged as the frontrunner in the first-round vote on November 24 despite being a political outsider who declared zero campaign spending.
