Romania’s Top Court Postpones Decision On Presidential Election

Romania’s top court has postponed a decision on whether to annul the first round of a presidential election until December 2, after a shock result caused suspicions of interference in the campaign.

The court will now issue its ruling on Monday, one day after a parliamentary election in the NATO and European Union member states.

Independent far-right candidate Calin Georgescu finished first in last Sunday’s vote and secured a place in a run-off scheduled for December 8. Victory in the second round would upend politics in Romania and could undermine its pro-Western stance.

Romanian authorities say they have found evidence of meddling in the election campaign by hostile actors, and the Constitutional Court is yet to validate the results.

The court has ordered a recount of the 9.46 million votes cast in the first round while also considering a request by a defeated conservative candidate to annul the first-round vote.

The uncertainty has caused political chaos and confusion as the country of 19 million prepares for Sunday’s parliamentary election, in which the far-right is expected to make gains.

Electoral Commission, Chief Toni Grebla told Radio Romania Actualitati that the first round would be rerun if the Constitutional Court decides to annul the result, adding: “We hope that this (recount) ends as soon as possible.”

He said the court would then be able to decide to “validate or invalidate the November 24 ballot”.

If it announces a rerun, he said, the first round of voting in the presidential election could take place on December 15 and the run-off could be on December 29.

According to Romanian law, the court can annul the result of the first-round vote only if it finds evidence of fraud affecting the identities of the two candidates who reached the run-off.

The election results put fewer than 3,000 votes between the runner-up, centrist Elena Lasconi, and the third-placed candidate, Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

By law, the top court needs to validate the first round result by November 29 for the run-off vote to go ahead on December 8 as scheduled.

Interference

Meanwhile, Romania’s Supreme Defence Council said it had evidence of interference, that Romania was a target for hostile actors such as Russia, and that TikTok had given one candidate more exposure and had not forced him to label his content as electoral.

TikTok rejected the accusations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any accusations of Russian interference in Romania’s presidential election were groundless.

Georgescu has previously praised 1930s Romanian fascist politicians as national heroes and martyrs, has been critical of NATO and Romania’s stance on Ukraine, and has said Bucharest should engage, not challenge, Russia.

Grebla told newsmen on Thursday that Sunday’s parliamentary election would go ahead as planned.

Political analysts say the political chaos is likely to increase support for the far right.

An AtlasIntel poll conducted from November 26-28 showed the hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) leading the field with 22.4% support. It was narrowly ahead of the governing Social Democrats on 21.4%, whose support has waned.

Public confidence in national institutions could also be undermined by the chaos, political analysts said.

“We are in a place where the Constitutional Court decides for the Romanian collective public life in a manner that supersedes its purpose and it will lead to a situation in which Romanians no longer trust in anything,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University.

Bucharest resident Emilia Gasu said she thought there could be a different result after any recount.

“Gosh, the political fights we’ll see,” she said.

 

 

 

 

 

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere