By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUCHAREST/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A pro-Russian presidential candidate has condemned Romania’s top court’s decision to order a recount of votes in the first round of the presidential election.
Calin Georgescu’s surge to victory in the European Union and NATO member state prompted Romania’s top security body to warn that the country was “a key target” for hostile Russian actions.
Having polled in single digits before Sunday’s vote, the 62-year-old far-right politician surprised friends and foes by winning.
However, Georgescu said in a statement that state institutions, including the Constitutional Court, “were trying to deny people’s vote in Sunday’s election.”
His centrist contender, Elena Lasconi, whom he was to meet in a run-off on December 8, shared his assessment.
“The Constitutional Court is interfering in the democratic process for the second time,” she wrote, referring to a previous ruling to ban a far-right politician from running in the presidential election. “One combats extremism through votes, not backstage games.”
Georgescu gained many votes from young voters and Romanians living abroad, and his campaign relied heavily on the social media platform TikTok.
SUSPENDING TIKTOK?
On Wednesday, a senior official at Romania’s telecoms regulator called for TikTok to be suspended pending an investigation into the platform’s role in the vote.
The standoff comes ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election, which was due to be impacted by Georgescu’s victory. The far right is expected to do well.
On Thursday, an Atlasintel poll obtained by the HotNews website showed the radical right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) in first place with 22.4 percent of the vote, followed by the Social Democrats (PSD) with 21.4 percent.
That worries critics as Georgescu has praised 1930s Romanian fascist politicians as “national heroes and martyrs.”
He has been critical of the NATO military alliance and Romania’s support for Ukraine.
Georgescu said the country “should engage, not challenge” Russia. Moscow has denied interfering in elections.
The court postponed a ruling for November 29 and asked for a recount. The court will only provide the reasoning for its decision in a statement at a later date.
VALIDATING RESULTS
By law, the top court must validate the first round result by November 29 for the run-off vote to happen on December 8 as scheduled.
However, the head of the country’s election authority said recounting the 9.46 million votes currently in archives at courthouses across Romania would take days.
Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu ranked third on Sunday, only 2,740 votes behind runner-up Lasconi. Many of the top court’s nine judges were appointed by the Social Democrat Party.
The decision to call for a recount was made after conservative presidential candidate Cristian Terhes, who got 1 percent of the votes on Sunday, challenged the ballot’s result.
Terhes asked that the Court annul the election outcome, saying Lasconi got votes transferred to her from another candidate who had withdrawn from the race but still appeared on the ballot.
Romania’s political turmoil comes at a difficult time for the region, with nearby wartorn Ukraine and Russia using increasingly heavy weapons against each other.
Bucharest has supported Kyiv militarily, but Georgescu has criticized the aid and even questioned Romania’s NATO membership.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia and the United States edged closer to confrontation after U.S. forces seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic, prompting sharp protests from Moscow and assertive statements from senior U.S. officials. Russian state broadcaster RT released grainy images showing a helicopter approaching the tanker, while Reuters, citing U.S. officials, confirmed that American forces boarded and seized the vessel under a U.S. court warrant linked to sanctions enforcement. The tanker, identified as the Marinera (also known as Bella 1), had been traveling from Iran toward Venezuela … Read more
At least 11 Christians were killed and 18 others seriously wounded when a drone operated by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) struck civilians traveling to Christmas celebrations in South Kordofan state on Dec. 25, according to local sources.
A Christian pastor was seriously injured after being attacked by a group of Muslim assailants wielding sharp objects in eastern Uganda, according to an exclusive report by Morning Star News.
Iranian security forces confronted large demonstrations at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Tuesday with tear gas and a heavy police presence, as nationwide protests entered a second week and the country’s currency plunged to a historic low.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers during a closed briefing Monday that recent White House rhetoric about Greenland does not signal an imminent U.S. invasion, emphasizing instead that the administration’s preferred goal is to purchase the island from Denmark, according to people familiar with the discussion.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that a federal crime crackdown in the nation’s capital has led to dramatic reductions in violent crime, crediting the effort to President Donald Trump’s public safety initiative.
Israel, Syria and the United States have agreed to establish a new “joint fusion mechanism” aimed at enhancing security coordination, intelligence sharing and military de-escalation, marking the most significant formal cooperation between Jerusalem and Damascus in decades.