Analysis
Citing interference from Moscow, Romania will redo presidential elections
The unprecedented move will nullify all votes cast so far. Based on the conclusions of the Romanian intelligence services, the country was the target of hostile actions attributable to foreign states, “Russia in particular,” which took the form of “massive exposure for a particular candidate.”
On Friday, in a dramatic and unexpected decision, two days before the presidential election runoff, the Romanian Constitutional Court annulled the first round of the elections. The whole process will be redone from the start, after 33,000 voters among the diaspora in Australia and New Zealand had already voted. All cast votes have been nullified.
It was an unprecedented decision that poured gasoline on the fire of the controversy that erupted in the aftermath of the first round, when the country's Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) denounced foreign interference in the electoral process, pointing a finger at Russia.
According to the CSAT, based on the conclusions of the Romanian intelligence services, the country was the target of hostile actions attributable to foreign states, “Russia in particular,” which took the form of “massive exposure for a particular candidate [the far-right sovereignist independent candidate Calin Georgescu], with preferential treatment given to him by the TikTok platform.” The internal investigations by Romanian intelligence had remained classified until Thursday, Dec. 5, and it is likely that their declassification prompted the Court to decide unanimously that the “suspicious” first round of elections needed to be redone from the beginning. The shocking results of the first round saw Georgescu leap from a mostly unknown figure polling in the low single digits to winning the first round outright.
As per its statement published on Friday, the Constitutional Court decided to intervene under Article 146(f) of the Romanian Constitution, which gives the highest court the role of “supervising compliance with the procedure for the election of the president.”
Prior to the annulment, the court had also received official complaints of alleged election interference from the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA), the Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism, the publication Calea Europeana, and presidential candidate Cristian Terhes, who received 1.7 percent of the vote in the first round and requested a recount of all 9.4 million votes.
The new presidential election could take place no earlier than in March 2025, due to the requirement of redoing the whole electoral process, but no official date has been set at this point. It is a decision that will have to be made in a particularly precarious institutional context: the current government is practically at the end of its term, the new government alliance is still being negotiated after the legislative elections that were held on Sunday, December 1, and the term of the outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, is set to expire on December 21; he will stay on in an acting role until the new president is elected.
According to Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, “the Constitutional Court's decision regarding the annulment of the presidential elections is the only correct solution after the declassification of documents from the CSAT meeting, which show that the result of the Romanians' vote was blatantly distorted as a result of Russia's intervention. The presidential elections must be rerun.”
The two candidates on the ballot for the Sunday runoff were the pro-EU conservative Elena Lasconi and the far-right independent Georgescu, with the polls giving Lasconi a slight lead. Lasconi, who narrowly edged out more prominent figures in the first round to reach the runoff, condemned the Court’s decision in harsh terms: “Today, the Romanian state trampled on democracy. … We should have gone ahead with the vote and respected the will of the Romanian people. … I strongly condemn what was done today. It is an immoral and illegal decision that crushes the very essence of democracy … This will cost us dearly in the years to come.”
In the evening, Georgescu, a sovereignist who has been highly critical of the EU and NATO and has shown an affinity towards Russia, also sharply condemned the Court’s decision: “The Constitutional Court's decision represents much more than a legal dispute. It is, practically, an officialized coup. … In such a situation, one can no longer talk about justice, but we are in fact talking about a simulacrum that betrays the principles of democracy.” In later interviews, he accused the Court of acting under orders coming from NATO and the EU, as well as the political establishment, to keep him from the presidency.
On Saturday, Georgescu called on his supporters to come to the locations of their polling stations on Sunday in protest, demanding to be let in to vote. His call was joined by George Simion, the leader of AUR, the largest sovereignist party that came in second in the legislative elections, and which had endorsed Georgescu in the runoff. While the two called for the protests to be “peaceful,” given their ties to extreme-right movements and the violent online rhetoric from some of their supporters, there was concern about possible violent unrest.
In the end, there were only very minor protests against the annulment of the elections on Sunday and no unrest. However, the Romanian authorities foiled what appeared to be a plot by extremists that could have involved violence: 20 members of a Georgescu-aligned far-right paramilitary group were arrested on the way to Bucharest, with a large quantity of weapons in their possession. The authorities are continuing their investigations, including into open violent threats made online and the sources of dark money that were allegedly used to boost Georgescu’s campaign on social media without disclosure, in violation of electoral law.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ingerenze-di-mosca-nel-voto-elezioni-rumene-da-rifare on 2024-12-07