Constitutional Court says move aims to ensure ‘correctness, legality’ of process amid Russian interference claims.
Romania’s top court has annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election and says the process must be rerun after allegations that Russia ran a coordinated campaign to promote the far-right candidate who emerged as the frontrunner.
The Constitutional Court’s decision on Friday, which is final, came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence this week that alleged Romania was the target of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period.
The alleged effort included thousands of social media accounts that promoted far-right populist Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.
The court has decided “to annul the entire electoral process for the election of the President of Romania … to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process”, it said in Friday’s decision.
Georgescu, a pro-Russian candidate who wants to end Romania’s support for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, emerged as the frontrunner in the first-round vote on November 24 despite being a political outsider who declared zero campaign spending.
He was due to face pro-European Union centrist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party in a run-off on Sunday. Voting is already under way in polling stations abroad.
Georgescu described the court’s decision on Friday as a “coup” while Lasconi said it was “illegal, amoral and crushes the very essence of democracy: voting”.
George Simion, leader of the opposition hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR), also called the decision a “coup d’etat” but urged people not to take to the streets.
“Nine politically appointed judges, scared that a candidate outside the system had all chances to become Romania’s president, decided to annul Romanians’ will,” Simion said.
But Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu expressed support for the court’s ruling, saying it was “the only correct decision” after the declassified documents showed alleged Russian interference.
“The presidential elections must be held again,” Ciolacu said in a post on Facebook. “At the same time, investigations by the authorities must uncover who is responsible for the massive attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election.”
The intelligence files released on Wednesday were from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In light of their release, the Constitutional Court received multiple legal complaints urging it to annul the first-round vote.
A new date will now be set to rerun the first round.
“The electoral process to elect Romania’s president will be fully rerun, and the government will set a new date and … calendar for the necessary steps,” the Constitutional Court said in a statement.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, whose term ends on December 21, said on Friday that he will stay on until a new president is elected.
Meanwhile, Romania’s anti-organised crime prosecuting unit DIICOT said it was launching an investigation into Georgescu’s campaign after analysing the declassified documents.
“Prosecutors are looking at the commission of the crimes of illegal operations with computer devices or programmes, the attempted crime of disrupting the functioning of computer systems and the attempted crime of illegal access to a computer system,” it said in a statement.
While the president’s post is largely ceremonial in Romania, the head-of-state has moral authority and influence on the country’s foreign policy.
The president also designates the prime minister, a key role since legislative elections last weekend returned a fragmented parliament.
The governing pro-European Social Democrats won the vote, but far-right parties made strong gains, together securing a third of the ballots.