BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A top Romanian court on Thursday asked the official electoral authority to recount and verify all of the ballots cast in the first round of the presidential election, which was won by a far-right outsider candidate, sending shockwaves through the political establishment.
The Constitutional Court, or CCR, in Bucharest voted unanimously in favor of the recounting the more than 9.4 million ballots, and said the decision is final. The Central Election Bureau is expected to meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss the request.
Calin Georgescu, a little-known, far-right populist, won the first round, beating the incumbent prime minister. Georgescu, who ran independently, was due to face reformist Elena Lasconi, the leader of the Save Romania Union party, or USR, in a Dec. 8. runoff.
Georgescu's unexpected success has prompted nightly protests by people who are concerned with previous remarks he's made in praising Romanian fascist and nationalist leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and believe he poses a threat to democracy.
The vote recount was prompted by a complaint made by Cristian Terhes, a former presidential candidate of the Romanian National Conservative Party who obtained 1% of the vote, who alleged that the USR had urged people to vote before some diaspora polls had closed on Sunday, saying it violated electoral laws against campaign activities on polling day.
After the CCR's ruling, Terhes' press office said in a statement on Facebook that the court ordered the recount “due to indications of fraud,” and alleged Terhes had “presented evidence suggesting” that valid votes cast for Ludovic Orban — who had dropped out of the race but remained on the ballot — had been reassigned to Lasconi.
It is the first time in Romania’s 35-year post-communist history that the country’s most powerful party, the PSD, didn’t have a candidate in the second round of a presidential race. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu resigned as PSD party leader after he narrowly lost to Lasconi by just 2,740 votes.
Lasconi criticized the CCR's decision, saying “Extremism is fought by voting, not backstage games."
“What the CCR is trying to do now is absolutely horrific for a democratic country,” she said. “I am here to defend democracy and call on the Central Election Bureau to handle the vote recount wisely. The law must be the same for all, not interpreted differently for some.”
Lasconi, a former journalist, had told The Associated Press ahead of the first-round vote that she saw corruption as one of Romania’s biggest issues and vowed to tackle it.
“Romania deserves better, not a group of old politicians who use institutions strictly for their personal interest!” Lasconi added in her Thursday statement.
The CCR on Thursday also rejected a request by another unsuccessful first-round candidate, Sebastian Popescu, to annul the ballot.
Popescu alleged Georgescu — who declared zero campaign spending — had not disclosed financing linked to a massive TikTok campaign, which many have credited for his success.
Popescu, who got 0.15% in the first round, also alleged in his appeal that Georgescu had used widespread disinformation and “defrauded the electoral law by illegally financing the entire electoral campaign, having support from outside the country’s borders, from state entities with the aim of destabilizing Romania.”
Georgescu’s account on the Chinese platform TikTok, which has amassed 5.1 million likes and 450,000 followers, gained huge traction in recent weeks. Expert Forum, a Bucharest-based think tank, said in a report that the rapid rise “appears sudden and artificial, similar to his polling results.”
The most visible theme on Georgescu’s TikTok in the last two months “is peace, more precisely the need for Romania to stop supporting Ukraine in order not to involve Romania in war,” the report stated.
Romania’s National Audiovisual Council asked the European Commission this week to investigate TikTok’s role in the Nov. 24 vote. Pavel Popescu, the vice president of Romania’s media regulator Ancom, said he would request TikTok’s suspension on Thursday in Romania if investigations find evidence of “manipulation of the electoral process.”
The AP emailed TikTok’s spokesperson on Thursday asking whether an internal investigation is being carried out into any alleged dubious activity, but did not yet receive a response.
Georgescu, who said a network of Romanian volunteers helped his campaign, has denied any wrongdoing. “They want to ban the right of the Romanian people to speak freely,” he told a local news channel Wednesday, adding the first-round vote “was perfectly democratic and legitimate.”