International-News

Presidential election annulled in Romania on suspicion of Russian interference

Constitutional Court orders re-run of election process to ensure fairness of vote

Romania’s Constitutional Court today, 6 December, annulled the result of the first round of the presidential elections due to suspicions of Russian interference. This decision led to the cancellation of the runoff scheduled for Sunday between Calin Georgescu, far-right and pro-Russian, and Elena Lasconi, mayor of Campulung and supporter of pro-NATO and pro-EU positions.

The court said it had annulled the entire election process to ‘ensure the fairness and legality of the electoral process’ after receiving numerous requests based on declassified intelligence documents indicating Russian interference in the vote. Only last night, the judges had said they would not discuss the new information, but this morning they held a surprise meeting to make the decision.

On Monday, the court had issued a negative opinion on the request for the annulment of the vote, after asking the Electoral Office to recount the votes from the first round, following an appeal by candidate Cristian Terhes, who had received one per cent of the vote and claimed fraud. Terhes claimed that votes for a withdrawn candidate, whose name was still on the ballot, had been reassigned to Lasconi.

The law stipulates that if the elections are annulled, they must be reconvened on the second Sunday after the decision, i.e. on 22 December. However, since the Court ordered the entire election process to be repeated, the election campaign will also have to be repeated.

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