The Constitutional Court cancels the presidential elections in Romania after accusations of Russian interference

Romania’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the presidential election, whose run-off was due to take place this weekend, should be canceled completely and new elections held.

The constitutional judge made this decision on Friday and said that the government must now decide on the date of the new presidential elections.

The court’s decision came after allegations of Russian election interference, which according to Romanian secret services had helped the pro-Moscow far-right candidate Calin Georgescu to win the first round of elections.

“The election process to elect the Romanian president will start all over again. “The government will set a new date for the presidential elections in Romania, as well as a new calendar for the implementation of the necessary measures,” the court said.

Following the court’s ruling, it is still unclear whether all candidates will be allowed to re-register for the new elections or whether Georgescu could be barred from standing after it was revealed that he enjoyed support from Moscow.

Georgescut’s victory shocked the West after Romania’s Supreme National Defense Council published secret documents that allegedly contained evidence that a major cyber campaign orchestrated by Moscow on TikTok in favor of Georgescut had gone unnoticed by Romanian authorities.

Georgescu was expected to face the pro-European centrist candidate Elena Lasconi in a run-off election on Sunday, December 8.

Voting had begun in the diaspora on the Romanian presidential run-off, which was seen as a referendum on the country’s future in NATO and the European Union, as allegations of Russian interference in the election were rife.

The suspicion of Russian interference prompted thousands of Romanians to take to the streets of the country to protest for the country’s membership in the Euro-Atlantic community.

The Romanian authorities had decided to give the large diaspora two and a half days to vote in order to avoid long waiting times at the country’s foreign diplomatic missions.

Georgescu appeared to be the favorite to win the runoff, but in the latest polls Lasconi routed him after Romania’s Supreme Council for National Defense (CSAT) published secret documents on Wednesday showing that the country was the target of an “aggression hybrid from Russia,” leading to the pro-Russian candidate’s surprise victory.

According to a poll released by AltasIntel on Thursday, Lasconi, a former TV presenter and mayor of the small town of Kampulung, had a two percent lead over Georgescut.

Georgescu’s victory in the first round raised fears and sparked protests against the country’s democratic future, particularly among young Romanians.

On Thursday, around 3,000 people marched in Budapest and called on Romania to continue on its pro-European path. They then gathered in the capital’s square, where they chanted “freedom” and “Europe”.

According to the declassified documents, Romanian intelligence believes that Georgescu was massively promoted on TikTok with the support of Russia through various methods, including coordinated accounts, algorithms to increase his presence on the platform and paid advertising.

The documents explain how Georgescut’s popularity rose from 1 percent just before the race to 22 percent through an extensive manipulation operation involving influencers and deceiving Romanian institutions and ordinary voters.

The released documents show that TikTok influencers were recruited to campaign for Georgescu, both directly by publicly supporting him and indirectly through neutral messages containing hashtags related to him.

Romanian secret services stated that large sums of money were spent on this operation. Georgescu declared to the Romanian electoral authorities that he had spent nothing on his campaign.

The secret service linked the operation to Russia and found that access data to Romania’s official election websites was published on Russian cybercrime platforms.

Russia has denied any interference in the Romanian elections.

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