Romanian court cancels presidential election in latest political earthquake

The Romanian presidential run-off between far-right candidate Calin Georgescu and centrist pro-EU Elena Lasconi is now off, after the Constitutional Court (CCR) cancelled the results of the first round of votes and announced entirely new elections will be held instead.

This dramatic and unprecedented decision comes just as the voting has begun in the diaspora.

"The electoral process for the election of the President of Romania will be resumed in its entirety, with the Government required to set a new date for the election of the President of Romania as well as a new calendar program for carrying out the necessary actions," the court said in a statement on Friday.

The court said the decision to annul the first round was due to procedural issues and the declassification of the secret reports by the Romanian intelligence services showing Russian involvement in influencing voters through an anti-Western propaganda campaign supporting Georgescu.

The intelligence reports showed several illegal processes in Georgescu’s campaign financing. 

The court previously assessed a request to annul the election's result after Georgescu stunned the political establishment to come first place but decided to press ahead.

Friday's decision leaves the country in an unparalleled political situation with unforeseen consequences. According to initial scenarios, the new election might take place in spring 2025 if the decision on the new vote also means restarting the entire process, including collecting signatures for each candidate from scratch.

From 'the only correct solution' to 'coup d'état in full swing'

The centre-left Social Democratic party's candidate in the first round and Prime Minister-incumbent Marcel Ciolacu hailed the Bucharest court's decision as the right thing to do.

"The CCR's decision to cancel the presidential elections is the only correct solution after the declassification of documents from the CSAT meeting, which show that the result of the Romanian vote was flagrantly distorted following Russian intervention," Ciolacu said.

"The authorities' investigations must show who is to blame for the attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election massively," he added.

"Romanians need clear answers from the authorities based on solid evidence because public trust in state institutions and in the democratic processes that underpin the functioning of the country fundamentally depends on this investigation, Ciolacu concluded.

Other Romanian politicians, including Lasconi, have largely slammed the court's decision, with the liberal candidate calling it "illegal, immoral and crushes the very essence of democracy."

"Today is the moment when the Romanian state trampled on democracy. God, the Romanian people, truth and the law will prevail and find them guilty of destroying our democracy," she said.

"We have all already seen how Putin laughed at the way the political power in Bucharest managed these elections," the USR leader added.

The leader of the far-right nationalist party AUR George Simion labelled the court's decision a "coup d'état in full swing" but rejected the idea of protests at this time.

"We don't go out into the streets, we don't let ourselves be provoked, this system must fall democratically," Simion wrote on Facebook.

The winner of the presidential election's first round, Georgescu is set to give a statement at 8 pm local time (7 pm CET).

Vote roiled by controversies

Georgescu has been subject to controversy since he surprisingly topped the ballot almost two weeks ago.

The first round of voting has already faced scrutiny from the court, with two candidates who lost the round filing complaints regarding the lack of transparency of campaign funding and voter deception.

On Wednesday, bombshell declassified information from Romania's intelligence agencies revealed that Georgescu's win was "not a natural outcome" and that a coordinated social media campaign by a "state actor" artificially propped up his victory.

Georgescu ran a successful campaign on the social media platform TikTok. His popularity exploded in the weeks before the vote, with the candidate gaining tens of millions of views days before the first round.

The documents showed a pre-organised sleeper network suddenly became active on the app two weeks before the election.

Romanian intelligence concluded that the network used methods typical of a state actor in recruiting and coordinating with others through the messaging platform Telegram.

The documents also found that almost €1 million was spent during the campaign by an individual who supported Georgescu's candidacy, with up to €950 paid for a repost on the app.

Georgescu claimed he had no campaign budget and was helped through volunteers.

On Thursday, the European Commission sent TikTok an "urgent" request for information about the platform's role in the elections.

"We are concerned about mounting indications of coordinated foreign online influence operation targeting ongoing Romanian elections, especially on TikTok," said Henna Virkkunen, the Commisison's executive vice-president in charge of digital policy.

TikTok has not responded to Euronews' requests for comment.