Romania canceled the in-progress presidential election

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that this was the only fair solution after the documents of the Supreme Council were declassified.

“The decision of the Constitutional Court to annul the presidential election is the only correct solution after the publication of documents that show that the election result was grossly distorted, following the intervention of the Russians,” he said according to Digi24.

The decision was made on Friday afternoon at a hastily convened consultation meeting. Due to the decision, the Romanian government will have to set a new date for the presidential elections, and at the same time the whole process will start again: from the registration of candidates to the confirmation of their validity, writes Romanian television.

The Constitutional Court stated that it annulled the first round due to the increased number of cancellation requests based on documents declassified by the Supreme Council for the Defense of the country. According to them, the pro-Russian candidate Georgescu’s campaign was “the result of manipulation organized from the outside”, which was proven even before the counting of the first round by the candidate’s strange tiktok campaign, which lasted only a week. In addition, his account was followed by millions of fake followers.

This declassified document further states that Georgescu spent one million euros (over 25 million crowns) on the Tiktok campaign and that there were actions by a “state cyber actor” on the infrastructure supporting the electoral process, with Romania becoming and still a target during the elections aggressive Russian hybrid actions.

Elena Lasconi, who finished behind Georgescu in the first round, said shortly after the cancellation of the results that “Romania trampled on democracy”.

“This is the moment when Romania trampled on democracy. God, truth, people and law will win. This is not about me. You are collapsing the economy, destroying democracy, leading the country into anarchy,” she commented on the decision of the Constitutional Court, saying that the country should have respected the people’s votes.

Pre-election polls gave Georgescu less than ten percent support, but in the first round, according to the results, he won more than 22 percent. Lasconiová received just over 19 percent.

At first, Tiktok claimed that nothing special had happened. However, he later admitted that he had blocked a “group” of accounts supporting the pro-Russian candidate, writes the British newspaper The Financial Times.

The representative of tiktok added that 66 thousand pro-Russian fake accounts and ten million pro-Russian fake followers of Georgescu were removed before the election.

The cancellation of the first round of the presidential election comes at a time when Romanians living abroad can already vote in the second round. Tens of thousands of people used this option before two o’clock on Friday afternoon.