Romania annuls presidential election over alleged Russian interference

Romania’s constitutional court has annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election following the declassification of intelligence showing Russian interference influenced the result.

The unprecedented move is raising significant questions both over Romania’s domestic constitutional processes and internationally about the most effective way to address foreign interference in democratic elections.

“The electoral process for the election of the President of Romania will be repeated in its entirety,” the court declared on Friday, striking down the result of the first round in which the previously little known far-right candidate Călin Georgescu romped ahead of his opponents to a surprising victory.

The second round vote was scheduled for this Sunday, a runoff between Georgescu and the liberal Elena Lasconi, but will now not take place. Opposition parties have criticized the government and the country’s major parties over the repeat election, complaining it is an attempt to hold on to power as these parties failed to make the runoff themselves.

Lasconi, who had hoped to win the runoff, condemned the court’s decision, arguing “from a legal and legitimate point of view, nine million Romanian citizens … expressed their preference for a certain candidate.”

Intelligence documents declassified and released on Wednesday by the outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, assess that Georgescu’s victory in the first round was down to a widespread state-sponsored interference on his behalf, including a sophisticated guerilla campaign on social media, particularly TikTok.

According to these documents, $381,000 was spent to promote Georgescu on TikTok without being marked as campaigning material as required both by TikTok’s terms and Romanian election law. The campaign was also heavily promoted by previously dormant accounts that had been registered two years ago.

The intelligence agencies also identified Russian cybercrime platforms trading credentials used by Romanian voters to access electoral websites, and said there had been thousands of cyberattacks during the voting itself that damaged electoral computers and forced a recount on the evening of the vote.

In a break from Romanian electoral law, which states that in the event that elections are annulled they should be resumed two Sundays later, the court has called for not just the vote to be repeated but the entire electoral campaign. The repeat election date has not yet been set.