Romania’s constitutional court has cancelled a presidential election scheduled for Sunday after allegations that Russia used TikTok to promote the leading candidate.
The decision to scrap Sunday’s run-off and annul the first-round victory of Călin Georgescu, who has praised Vladimir Putin, came after Romanian authorities published documents this week that indicated Moscow had sought to undermine the vote.
But the move was criticised by some politicians and analysts as anti-democratic. Opinion polls had given the far-right Georgescu a comfortable lead over Elena Lasconi, the second-placed liberal presidential candidate, ahead of the now cancelled vote.
“The electoral process for the election of the president of Romania will be repeated in its entirety,” the court said on Friday.
The date of the new vote will be set by Romania’s government after a coalition is formed following parliamentary elections last Sunday.
Thousands have taken to the streets of Bucharest and other cities to protest against Mr Georgescu in recent days, while a few hundred have held demonstrations backing him.
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis sought in a televised address on Friday evening to reassure investors and western allies, promising to stay in office until a successor is sworn in. “Romania is a stable and secure country,” he said.
Friday’s ruling is the first time a western court has intervened to overturn an election because of an alleged Russian attempt to sway the result. But it comes after a series of bids by Moscow to influence votes in countries well beyond its traditional sphere of influence.
Maia Sandu, president of neighbouring Moldova, narrowly secured re-election last month after what the country’s officials said was an attempt at vote-buying by Moscow-aligned politicians.
Mr Georgescu’s first-round victory came even though he had no party behind him and claimed to have spent “zero” on his campaign, which was run mainly on social media.
The Romanian national security council declassified several documents on Wednesday that alleged that Russia had attempted to promote Mr Georgescu on social-media platforms and hack into the country’s electoral infrastructure.
The documents also noted that the far-right candidate, who was polling in single digits before last month’s vote, had “benefited from preferential treatment” on TikTok because the Chinese social media platform did not label his videos as political ads. More than 100 paid influencers with more than 8 million followers had promoted Georgescu’s videos, according to the documents.
TikTok said earlier this week it had taken down a “cluster” of pro-Georgescu accounts.
Romanian authorities have asked the European Commission to open an inquiry into TikTok, which could result in fines. The company has denied the accusations and said it acted in compliance with Romanian and European Union law.
The court’s decision to annul the vote comes despite it validating a recount on Monday that confirmed Mr Georgescu’s first-round victory, in which he won 23 per cent of the vote.
Friday’s ruling was welcomed as “the only correct decision” by prime minister Marcel Ciolacu, who had led polls before the first round.
But Ms Lasconi, who had been expecting to face Mr Georgescu in the run-off, labelled the court’s decision as “illegal, immoral”, adding that the ruling “crushes the essence of democracy – the vote”. She vowed to stand again
In a video statement on Friday, Mr Georgescu said: “The Romanian state took democracy and trampled on it.” He said the court’s decision was “more than a legal controversy. It is, practically, a coup d’état.”
He pledged to fight on and said that his only “pact” was with the Romanian people and god.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024