A top court in Romania has annulled the result of the first round of the country’s presidential election after accusations of Russian interference.
The court annulled the election results on Friday, December 6, 2024.
The second round had been scheduled for Sunday and voting has already begun in polling stations abroad. It would have pitted Calin Georgescu, a far-right, pro-Russian candidate, against pro-European Union centrist leader Elena Lasconi.
Having polled in single digits before the first presidential election round on November 24, Georgescu – who wants to end Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion – surged to a first-place finish that raised questions over how such a surprise had been possible.
A Georgescu win would have upended the EU and NATO member state’s pro-Western politics, pushing it closer to a belt of states in central and eastern Europe with powerful populist, Russia-friendly politicians, including Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria.
However, Friday’s ruling plunged Romania into institutional chaos as current President Klaus Iohannis’s term ends on December 21 and it was unclear who would be head of state after this date.
Analysts said the ruling may erode institutions, trigger street protests and ultimately still endanger the nation’s pro-Western course.
Documents declassified by Romania’s top security council on Wednesday said the country was a target of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period.
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“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 said in a statement.
It added that the ruling was made “seeking to ensure the fairness and legality of the electoral process”.
A detailed explanation of its ruling will be released at a later date. The court had validated the first presidential round on Monday.
Lasconi condemned the ruling, saying: “The constitutional court’s decision is illegal, amoral and crushes the very essence of democracy, voting.”
However, Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu supported the move, calling it “the only correct solution”.
The December 8 run-off election would have been the third consecutive ballot after the first presidential round and a December 1 parliamentary election in which far-right parties gained a third of seats, though the ruling Social Democrats emerged as the largest grouping and hope to cobble together a pro-EU coalition government.
The parliamentary vote was unaffected by Friday’s court ruling in Romania, Reuters reported.
George Simion, the leader of the opposition hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), called the court ruling a “coup d’etat”, adding that “nine politically appointed judges, scared that a candidate outside the system had all chances to become Romania’s president, decided to annul Romanians’ will.”
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