Romania’s Top Court Demands Recount In Presidential Poll

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.

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