Romania’s Constitutional Court on Friday canceled the final round of a pivotal presidential election with only two days before the vote, saying it needed to ensure the “correctness of the electoral process.”
The surprise decision, in a NATO member state that shares a border with Ukraine, came days after Romanian leaders raised allegations that “cyberattacks” had tried to undermine the vote. The court’s ruling was also the latest in a series of political upheavals across Europe, where right-wing and nationalist movements have surged this year.
The front-runner in Romania’s now canceled election had been Calin Georgescu, an ultranationalist whose victory in a first-round vote late last month stunned Romania’s political establishment.
George Simion, a far-right leader who had endorsed Mr. Georgescu, denounced the court ruling, saying “a coup is underway,” but he urged supporters not to take to the street in protest. “The system must fall democratically,” Mr. Simion said.
The court gave no explanation for its decision on Friday, and it was not clear when a new first round would take place. “The electoral process for the president of Romania will be entirely redone,” it said in a statement.
The move set off angry reaction among right-wing groups on social media, but was welcomed by the prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, the leader of the governing Social Democrats and a losing candidate in the opening round of the presidential vote.
The decision to annul the vote, he said, was the “only correct solution” after the declassification of security council documents that indicated Russian meddling in the election.
A little-known soil expert, Mr. Georgescu was widely dismissed as a fringe candidate before the first round of the election last month. Mr. Georgescu has praised both President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Romania’s fascist leader during World War II, and presented himself as an outsider who would wrest Romania from corrupt politicians.
He is also a skeptic of vaccines and the pharmaceutical industry, and wrote the foreword to the Romanian edition of a book by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to be health secretary.
He won more votes than any of his 13 competitors in the election’s first round, with 22.9 percent of ballots, taking a lead that shocked many centrist and liberal Europeans. That was still far short of the majority needed to win outright, however, setting up a runoff with the second-place finisher, Elena Lasconi, a mayor and former journalist who took 19.2 percent.
Ms. Lasconi, of the Save Romania Party, had also presented herself as an outsider, but within the mainstream opinion of support for the European Union and opposition to Russia.
Days after the first round, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense, which oversees national security, announced that there had been “cyberattacks” meant to undermine the vote and social cohesion. Mr. Georgescu benefited from the campaign, according to Romanian intelligence documents declassified by the president this week.
“Romania, along with other states on NATO’s Eastern Flank, has become a priority for the hostile actions of some state and nonstate actors,” the statement said, singling out Russia.
The council, which is led by President Klaus Iohannis and includes other senior officials, also criticized TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, saying the platform had violated electoral laws because it had not identified Mr. Georgescu as a candidate.
One of the race’s presidential candidates also made allegations of irregularities in the vote, and the Constitutional Court took up the case, ordering a recount. The issue seemed resolved when, on Monday, the court validated the voting and ruled out ordering a redo of the presidential vote.
This month, Romanians also voted for lawmakers — electing a highly fragmented Parliament divided between centrist parties that want to strengthen bonds with the West, and anti-establishment nationalists who want to loosen those ties.
The Social Democrats took the most votes but fell short of a majority. It is likely to be difficult for the Social Democrats to keep the next governing coalition aligned with Romania’s Western allies in NATO, given that three hard-right, Russia-friendly parties had strong showings in the election.
The post Romanian Court Annuls Presidential Election Results and Orders a New Vote appeared first on New York Times.
