Romania’s top court orders recount of presidential votes

Romania’s constitutional court on Thursday ordered a recount of last week’s first round of presidential elections in which a pro-Russian ultranationalist surprisingly came on top, shocking the country and its western allies.
Romanian authorities are scrutinising whether the election was subject to foreign interference after Calin Georgescu, a far-right fringe candidate, won the vote on Sunday, with a run-off against liberal candidate Elena Lasconi scheduled for December 8th.
The top court is due to decide on Friday whether to annul the results following complaints lodged by two losing candidates that the poll was compromised.
Separately, the country’s president, Klaus Iohannis, on Thursday summoned an emergency meeting of the security council to discuss cyber threats and attempts to interfere in the election by foreign actors.
Both Mr Georgescu and Ms Lasconi have urged the top court not to annul the first round’s results, which would be an unprecedented step in the country’s post-communist history. If the court decided that there was sufficient evidence of election fraud to declare the vote null and void, voters would have to cast their ballots again on December 8th.
Analysts have warned that annulling the vote or barring Mr Georgescu from running would only bolster the other far-right candidate, George Simion, whose AUR party stands to make massive gains in parliamentary elections on December 1st.
There are also fears of potential civil unrest following thousands of people protesting against Georgescu in Bucharest and other major cities every evening since Sunday. “No fascists in parliament!” protesters chanted in Bucharest on Wednesday.
Mr Georgescu this week sought to recast his image as pro-European and denied having any links to Russia. He previously expressed sympathy for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, calling him “a man who loves his country” just days into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He has also upheld his criticism of Nato and Ms Lasconi’s support for the US-led military alliance, which he said was dragging Romania into the war in Ukraine.
Authorities have launched an investigation into Mr Georgescu’s personal finances after he declared having spent no money on his election campaign. Prime minister Marcel Ciolacu, who also ran for the presidency, earlier this week said Mr Georgescu’s highly successful social media campaign raised questions about who had funded it.
Authorities have also asked Brussels to launch an inquiry into TikTok for allegedly helping Mr Georgescu become viral on the Chinese social media platform. The company owned by ByteDance has denied any wrongdoing and said it was fully complying with Romanian and EU law.
Mr Georgescu told local television Realitatea late on Wednesday that annulling the first round’s result was “unimaginable” and would delegitimise the next president. He blamed the “political conglomerate which brought the whole country to the brink of poverty” of trying to rob Romanians of their democratic choice.
Ms Lasconi – who stands to become the country’s first female president if she wins – also said in a speech on Wednesday that scrapping the result would be a “serious violation of democracy … Whether we like it or not, two million or so Romanians voted for Călin Georgescu.”
The US embassy in Bucharest said it would not interfere but stressed the importance of maintaining Romania’s pro-western orientation.
“There should be no question about the value of the transatlantic alliance,” ambassador Kathleen Kavalec said in a statement. “Russia’s war of aggression has indeed disrupted the peace in Europe. Now, more than ever, we should not take our alliances for granted.”
Alexander Dugin, one of Mr Putin’s ideologues, told Romanian television Antena3 that Mr Georgescu was “an excellent candidate” who was “useful for us”.
“He cannot be called pro-Russian, but he is similar to [Viktor] Orban,” Mr Dugin said, in reference to the Hungarian prime minister, who defied EU allies and met the Russian president this summer. “For Russia it is much easier to deal with such a politician than with anyone else.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024