The canceled presidential election in Romania and why it matters

Forty-eight hours before the scheduled vote for the second round of the presidential election, the entire process was abandoned due to an unprecedented ruling by the Constitutional Court.

The court's decision to annul the first round came after a far-right independent candidate, Calin Georgescu, came out of nowhere to take the lead in the first round two weeks ago, amid allegations of Russian interference.

Georgescu condemned the move, calling it a coup and Romania may have to wait months before voting again.

Romania is a key NATO member on its eastern flank and shares a long border with Ukraine.

It is not the first Eastern European state to push back against Russian hybrid warfare, and the Constitutional Court has ruled that intelligence revelations of Russian interference are serious enough to suspend the presidential vote.

Moldova The recent presidential vote was held amid allegations of Russian interference and electoral fraud, and across the Black Sea in Georgiathe pro-Western opposition says the country's disputed elections were affected by Kremlin interference.

Opinion polls were almost neck and neck ahead of Sunday's race. Nearly 19 million Romanians could choose between Calin Georgescu and liberal mayor and former television journalist Elena Lasconi.

The latest polls even gave Lasconi the advantage in the second round.

But on Wednesday, outgoing Romanian President Klaus Iohannis declassified the intelligence. documents of the supreme council of national defense suggesting that nearly 800 Tiktok accounts created by a “foreign state” in 2016 were suddenly activated last month to full capacity, supporting Georgescu.

Just two weeks before the first round, another 25,000 TikTok accounts had become active.

Romanian foreign intelligence said Russia was the “enemy state” involved and had engaged in hybrid attacks, including tens of thousands of cyberattacks and other sabotage.

National intelligence attributed Georgescu's sudden rise in popularity to a “highly organized” and “guerrilla” social media campaign that involved identical social media posts and influencers.

TikToks promoting him were not marked as election content, violating Romanian laws, he said, while one account paid $381,000 (£300,000) in the space of a month to users who pushed Georgescu's candidacy, even though he said he paid nothing for his candidacy. campaign.

This decision to declassify intelligence documents changed everything.

Constitutional Court judges met on Friday to consider a large number of requests to cancel the first round.

This is a complete reversal from a decision made four days earlier, which approved the initial vote on November 24 after a full recount of 9.4 million votes.

In its one-page ruling, the Constitutional Court states that, in order to ensure the fairness and legality of the electoral process, it unanimously decided to annul the entire vote and that the government must set a new date for a new election.

The court says its role, under the Constitution, is to “guarantee respect for the procedure” of presidential elections.

He emphasizes that the decision is final and binding.

The Romanian president wields considerable power as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and responsible for appointing the Prime Minister.

Calin Georgescu, who calls himself a university professor, was an unknown in the presidential race.

He denies being a fan of Vladimir Putin, although he considers the Russian leader a “patriot and a leader” and wants to end political and military aid to Ukraine.

“Zero. Everything stops,” he told the BBC's Sarah Rainsford. “I have to take care only of my people. We have a lot of problems ourselves”, in terms which reflect his priority position towards Romania.

He believes that even if Romania must remain within international organizations such as the EU and NATO, it must end its role as a “servant”.

He also condemns allegations that Russia is behind his electoral success because the intelligence “lies.”

A 62-year-old agricultural engineer, years ago he held high-ranking civil service positions in the Romanian Ministries of Environment and Foreign Affairs.

He is also a conspiracy theorist who believes that humans never landed on the Moon and that the Covid-19 pandemic never happened. despite the seven million deaths worldwidereported by the World Health Organization.

Learn more: Far-right candidate vows to end aid to Ukraine

Romanians are divided over the Constitutional Court's decision.

“Today, the Romanian state has trampled democracy underfoot,” lamented liberal candidate Elena Lasconi.

Crin Antonescu, former leader of the National Liberal Party, however, welcomed the court's decision and said he did not understand Lasconi's reaction. “It's absolutely true, to begin with [the whole race] again from scratch,” he told Romanian media.

There was anger from Calin Georgescu's supporters.

“We are witnessing a lying political class, afraid of losing power and capable of committing any injustice to maintain their power and positions,” Eugen, an entrepreneur from the western city of Timisoara, told the BBC.

Romanians, unenthusiastic about the two candidates, do not know whether they should be happy not to have to decide on Sunday or whether they should worry about the future of Romanian democracy.

The election starts again in three or four months, to give candidates a chance to gain support to run.

Meanwhile, outgoing President Klaus Iohannis said he would remain in office until the next president is elected.

There is no reason why Georgescu cannot run again, although he could face criminal charges due to the allegations against him which he denies.

Romania has just held legislative elections in which centrist parties did better than expected. The Social Democrats are expected to lead the next coalition government.

However, three far-right parties received 32% of the vote, and one of them, George Simion's AUR, came second.

Another factor of uncertainty concerns the reaction of Georgescu's supporters to the annulment.

Will they take to the streets or seek to support Calin Georgescu or another nationalist candidate when Romania returns to the polls?