On Friday, November 6, the Romanian Constitutional Court officially annulled the results of the first round of voting in the presidential elections. The decision came as a shock to many as just days prior, the Court had validated the results of the first round and voting for the second round had already started for people domiciled outside of Romania. In the press release, it was said that the annulment was based on Article 146 (f) of the Constitution, for the protection of democracy, “to guard the observance of the procedure for the election of the President of Romania and to confirm the ballot returns.”. Particularly, the cancellation was equally fuelled after intelligence documents were released which suggested that the favourite candidate (Calin Georgescu), benefitted from mass influence operations conducted from abroad to interfere with the results of the vote. But, how did the elections culminate in this way and what are the next steps?
How Did We Get Here?
Barely a month ago (November 2024) when the electoral process began in full swing, independent candidate Calin Georgescu was completely unknown on the Romanian political scene. However, all of that changed in the final two weeks before the first round of elections scheduled to take place on November 24. Some 25.000 pro-Georgescu TikTok accounts burst into action, turning him into a TikTok sensation overnight. On election night, many were at a loss when he showed up at the top of the leaderboard, gaining over 2 million votes and beating predicted favourites Marcel Ciolacu (the current Romanian prime minister representing PSD) and Elena Lasconi (of the reformist party USR).
His sudden rise to fame prompted many to ask questions about his political past and his policies. His positions on NATO and the EU have been highly critical, vouching for a more Moscow-friendly switch if he was to become President. He has praised Russian President Putin as a leader and Patriot and vowed to end all Romanian aid to Ukraine. Despite scepticism over his popularity, the Constitutional Court did initially validate the first round results on December 2nd.
However, on December 5th, current President-elect Klaus Iohannis declassified additional documents which were used in the investigation of the Constitutional Court. The documents alleged that paid influencers, along with members of extremist right-wing groups promoted Georgescu’s candidacy online. Furthermore, it was alleged that he had unlawfully benefited from extensive electoral promotion during periods when campaigning was prohibited. Given these findings, the Constitutional Court decided to reverse its opinion and invalidate the votes of the first round.
What Does This Mean for the Future?
Even though evidence has emerged of foreign meddling (strongly implied as coming from Russia but not explicitly mentioned in documents), fear remains as millions of Romanians were attracted to Georgescu’s traditionalist campaign and would have voted for him. Many believe that cancelling of the elections was a hit to the democratic process as people might not be incentivised to continue voting if their will is so easily invalidated. Both Georgescu and his opponent Lasconi denounced the court’s decision, stating that Romania’s democracy was “trampled” by the State.
As for what Romania’s political future holds, on December 1 Romanians equally elected a new Parliament. Next week, a coalition of four parties will form a government and look at organising the new presidential elections, which are predicted to occur sometime in the spring. The reorganisation in the elections means that the process will begin from 0, with parties having the possibility of putting forward new candidates. Calin Georgescu has not stated whether he will run again and there is a possibility that he may not be allowed to after the events which ensued. Until the new Parliament delineates the election process, current President Iohannis will remain in office.
In the meantime, a criminal investigation has been launched to look into the people who were connected with the election fraud. TikTok is also under fire at the EU level, having been summoned to the European Parliament for questioning over its content moderation during the election period.
