Romania Cancels Election After Outsider Set to Win in Landslide

Romania‘s top court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, which was won by far-right outsider Calin Georgescu.

The move comes days after declassified intelligence alleged Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote Mr Georgescu.

The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision – which is final – came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia ran a sprawling campaign to back him on social media.

Reports suggested the effort was made up of thousands of social media accounts promoting Mr Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram.

🇷🇴 Journalists threw a woman to the ground as she tried to meet presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, because they couldn't take pictures with her in the front

When Georgescu saw the woman fall, he immediately rushed to help her up pic.twitter.com/HxG7Gsmdt7

— Daily Romania (@daily_romania) December 2, 2024

Despite being a huge outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Mr Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner on November 24.

He was due to face reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party in a run-off on Sunday.

Mr Georgescu said the country’s democracy was ‘under attack’ after the court ruled to annul the vote.

Calling the decision a ‘formalised coup d’etat‘, the former civil servant, 62, urged Romanians to ‘remain faithful to our common ideal’.

Mr Iohannis said he would remain in office until a new president is elected in a fresh poll, the date of which will be set once a new government is formed.

Some 951 voting stations had already opened abroad on Friday for the runoff for Romania’s large diaspora but had to be halted.

As well as the presidential race, Romania also held a parliamentary election which saw pro-Western parties win the most votes but also gains for far-right nationalists.

Source: The Daily Mail