- Romania’s constitutional court on Friday ordered a new presidential election.
- Allegations of Russian social media interference in favor of Calin Georgescu prompted the decision.
- An expert told BI the move was “unprecedented” in Romanian democratic history.
Romania’s constitutional court ordered a new presidential election on Friday, just two days before the second round of voting was due to be held.
The decision follows claims that Russia coordinated a social media campaign to boost far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, the surprise winner of the first round last Sunday. Moscow has denied the accusations.
Intelligence documents declassified this week by the outgoing president said online interference took place from abroad “with the aim of influencing the correctness of the electoral process.”
They also said a “candidate for the presidential elections benefited from a massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate,” in a reference to Georgescu.
On Thursday the European Union ordered TikTok to suspend content related to the Romanian elections.
Georgescu, who largely ran his campaign on the social media platform, is sceptical of Nato and called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “patriot and a leader” in an interview with BBC News on Thursday, before adding: “But I am not a fan.”
He also told BBC News he would end all support for Ukraine if elected. Romania shares a border with Ukraine and is a member of both Nato and the EU.
The government is yet to announce a date for a new election.
The constitutional court’s decision is “unprecedented in the democratic history of Romania,” political researcher Costin Ciobanu told Business Insider.
“It is difficult to assess what the impact of the constitutional court decision is, but given the long history of Russian interference in different elections, it doesn’t sound impossible that Russia was trying to use its tools to promote a candidate whose narratives were closer to what Russia is promoting.”
Ciobanu said the constitutional court may annul the parliamentary elections also held on Sunday and could bar Georgescu from standing in the fresh poll.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the court’s decision to annul was the “correct solution” following the release of the intelligence reports, which show that the first-round results were “blatantly distorted as a result of Russia’s intervention.”
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