Controversial vote

Romania: Recount of votes ordered

The anger among the population after the election was huge. Now constitutional watchdogs are demanding additional data.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Daniel MIHAILESCU)

Romania's Constitutional Court ordered the recount of all votes in the disputed presidential election on Thursday. A ruling on the requested annulment of the first round of the presidential election was postponed until tomorrow, Friday, and additional data was requested, Romanian media reported.

Two losing candidates had contested the election on the grounds that first-round winner Calin Georgescu had not disclosed his campaign funding. Two defeated presidential candidates from the sovereignist camp, Cristian Terhes and Sebastian Popescu, filed the petitions to annul the first round of voting.

Is Russia involved?
Romania's constitution stipulates that constitutional judges can annul presidential election results if they are "based on fraud" and have "influenced the order of the candidates who entered the run-off". Numerous commentators in Romania suspect that Russia was behind the election success of the right-wing radical Georgescu.

Election winner claims to have used "zero" funds
Popescu confirmed to Romanian media that his request is aimed at the completely non-transparent campaign financing of the right-wing extremist Georgescu, after he claimed to the country's central electoral authority that he had run his massive online election campaign with "zero" funds - which social media and advertising experts consider impossible.

The ruling post-communist (PSD) candidate and incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who lost the presidential race, recently suspected that Georgescu's election campaign had been "financed from abroad" and asked the relevant investigative authorities to clarify the financial flows.

Appeal to constitutional guardians
In view of the current considerable social tensions in the country between Georgescu's supporters and citizens with decidedly pro-Western views, both his opponent in the run-off election, the leader of the liberal-progressive reform party USR Elena Lasconi, and the new interim leader of the Liberals (PNL), Ilie Bolojan, appealed to the constitutional guardians the day before: The election and the votes cast must be respected, it would be a serious violation of democracy if people's votes were disregarded - "regardless of whether we like the election result or not", Lasconi said. For his part, the Liberal leader had urged the constitutional judges to rule with the "utmost sense of responsibility" in view of the deeply divided population.

Emergency meeting to examine "cyber attack"
An emergency meeting of the country's Supreme Defense Council (CSAT), convened by outgoing President Klaus Johannis, is also scheduled for today, Thursday, to examine whether Sunday's voting process was influenced by attacks by "state or non-state cyber actors" on the country's IT infrastructure and whether there is a threat to the country's security.