Romania’s highest court declared on Friday that the results of the first round presidential election were invalid and ordered a new run. This comes after Romanian declassified security documents claimed Russian interference in the promotion of an outsider candidate from a far-right party.
The Constitutional Court unanimously ruled to annul the entire presidential election process, which was held late last month. It then charged the government with announcing a new date for elections.
In a press release, the court stated that its decision was final and binding. It will also cancel a runoff vote scheduled for Sunday.
The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision comes after alarm was raised in Romania, among NATO allies, and European Union members, over a series of intelligence reports attributing the shocking success of the relatively unknown Calin Georgescu candidate to a Russian operation which, in part, exploited social networks, paid influencers, and conducted cyber attacks in order to influence election results.
Biden’s administration and members of Congress expressed concern about the Romanian intelligence findings.
Georgescu, a man who, according to reports, declared zero campaign expenditure, was able to emerge from obscurity and win the first round in the presidential election on November 24. He was to compete against reformist Elena Lasconi, the second-placed candidate from the Save Romania Union Party.
Georgescu claims he’s not pro-Russian but has called Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past a patriot of his country. He also expressed doubts about NATO and referred to Ukraine as an invented state.
Romania, an ally of NATO that borders Ukraine on the Black Sea and is part of NATO, has been a major supporter of Kyiv during its three-year-old defensive war against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Romania is home to thousands of U.S. soldiers on an airbase on the Black Sea in the southeast of the country. Plans are in place to make it the largest NATO base in Europe.
