Romanian court decides whether to repeat the presidential election | Romania

The head of Romania’s electoral office has said the first round of presidential elections could be repeated as the country’s Constitutional Court prepares to rule on whether to annul the vote won by a little-known ultra-nationalist.

Toni Greblă said a repeat of the November 24th vote could take place on December 15th, with the second round run-off two weeks later. The court, which has already ordered a recount of the vote, is meeting this afternoon to decide whether to cancel the vote altogether.

The Romanian presidential office said Thursday that officials had discovered online efforts to influence the vote won by Călin Georgescu, a far-right, pro-Moscow independent who had previously polled just shy of 5%.

The presidency noted “a growing interest” from Russia in “influencing the public agenda in Romanian society” and said Georgescu had benefited from “massive notoriety due to preferential treatment” through the social media platform TikTok, which it said it owns Information had not marked the content of the right-wing extremist candidate as political.

Georgescu won comfortably after a campaign that he said had no budget and relied heavily on viral TikTok videos, which was reportedly boosted by bot-like activity. In a runoff election on December 8th, he will face center-right candidate Elena Lasconi.

TikTok has denied the allegations, saying it enforces policies against election misinformation. A spokesman said Thursday that it was “categorically incorrect” to suggest that Georgescu’s account was treated differently than those of other candidates.

Georgescu has called for an end to the war in Ukraine, denied the existence of Covid-19, called two World War II-era Romanian fascists “national heroes” and claimed Romania would benefit from “Russian wisdom” in foreign policy.

The court will consider a request to annul the vote submitted by a conservative politician, Cristian Terhes, in a case that could further undermine public trust in Romania’s state institutions, after judges previously barred another far-right candidate from running .

Regardless of the decision, parliamentary elections will be held on Sunday, with both votes seen as crucial for the future direction of Romania, which has so far been a reliable ally of the EU and NATO and strategically important to the West’s efforts to support Ukraine.