Romania annuls first round of presidential vote won by far-right candidate

A top Romanian court on Friday annulled the first round of the country's presidential election, days after allegations that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.

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 comprising thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram.

The intelligence files were from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

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Despite being a huge outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner on Nov. 24. He was due to face reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party in a runoff on Sunday.

A new date will now be set to rerun the first round.

Lasconi strongly condemned the court's decision, saying it was "illegal, immoral, and crushes the very essence of democracy."

"We should have moved forward with the vote. We should have respected the will of the Romanian people. Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate standpoint, 9 million Romanian citizens, both in the country and the diaspora, expressed their preference for a particular candidate through their votes. We cannot ignore their will!" she said.

"I know I would have won. And I will win because the Romanian people know I will fight for them, that I will unite them for a better Romania. I will defend our democracy. I will not give up."

She said the issue of Russian interference should have been tackled after the election was completed.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in a statement the annulment was "the only correct solution" following the intelligence drop which revealed the "Romanian people’s vote was flagrantly distorted as a result of Russian interference."

"The presidential elections must be held again," he said in a post on Facebook. "At the same time, investigations by the authorities must uncover who is responsible for the massive attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election."

The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes, which added to the myriad controversies that have engulfed a chaotic election cycle.

Cristian Andrei, a political consultant based in Bucharest, said the court's decision amounts to a "crisis mode situation for the Romanian democracy."

"In light of the information about the external interference, the massive interference in elections, I think this was not normal but predictable, because it’s not normal times at all, Romania is an uncharted territory," he told The Associated Press. "The problem is here, do we have the institutions to manage such an interference in the future?"

Thirteen candidates ran in the first round presidential vote in the European Union and NATO member country. The president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments.

Georgescu's surprising success left many political observers wondering how most local surveys were so far off, putting him behind at least five other candidates before the vote.

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Many observers attributed his success to his TikTok account, which now has 5.8 million likes and 531,000 followers. But some experts suspect Georgescu’s online following was artificially inflated, while Romania’s top security body alleged he was given preferential treatment by TikTok over other candidates.

In the intelligence release, the secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid more $381,000 to other users to promote Georgescu content. Intelligence authorities said information they obtained "revealed an aggressive promotion campaign" to increase and accelerate his popularity.

Asked by the AP in an interview Wednesday whether he believes the Chinese-owned TikTok poses a threat to democracy, Georgescu said: "The most important existing function for promoting free speech and freedom of expression is social media."