Politics Court: Presidential election in Romania must be repeated
The presidential election in Romania must be repeated. This was decided by the country's Constitutional Court. The court intends to submit a statement of reasons later. It is not yet clear when a new election will take place.
06.12.2024, 16:38
SDA
A day earlier, the far-right and pro-Kremlin candidate Calin Georgescu, who won the election round that has now been declared invalid, came under judicial scrutiny for his election campaign on the online platform Tiktok. According to its own information, the supreme public prosecutor's office has started an investigation into the matter.
It is referring to information from the Romanian secret services and other security agencies, which had also been made public the previous day. Romania's foreign intelligence service SIE assumes that Russian-controlled manipulation contributed to Georgescu's success.
Georgescu had surprisingly won the most votes in the first round of the presidential election on November 24. The conservative-liberal politician Elena Lasconi came second. There was supposed to be a run-off between the two candidates on Sunday, but this will not take place.
The public prosecutor's office is investigating whether Georgescu's Tiktok campaign used methods prohibited by Romanian electoral law to influence voters. They are also investigating whether money laundering was involved. Georgescu had previously told the electoral authorities that he had spent "zero" financial resources on his extremely intensive Tiktok campaign.
The repetition of the entire election process also means that the candidates must be confirmed once again by the Constitutional Court before they can run. New election dates have not yet been announced.
