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Romania: Presidential election must be repeated

Posted on by Taylor Reeves
Romania: Presidential election must be repeated

Romania, Bucharest: Romanian independent far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu

The independent right-wing extremist presidential candidate Călin Georgescu won the first round.

Source: Reuters

Romania’s top court has declared the results of the first round of presidential elections invalid. The entire procedure had to be repeated, it said in a statement on Friday.

“The procedure for electing the President of Romania will be completely re-recorded,” the Constitutional Court said. It made the decision “to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process.”

The judges based this on revelations by the Romanian secret service that the country had been the target of an “aggressive Russian hybrid attack”. The right-wing extremist and pro-Russian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu was massively promoted via TikTok with the help of coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid advertising.
The elected person leaves the voting booth to vote in Romania.

Projections had seen the Social Democrats as the strongest party in the Romanian parliamentary election. Things turned out differently.12/02/2024 | 1:29 mins

The pro-Russian Georgescu won the first round

Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of presidential elections in the EU and NATO member state at the end of November, after previously only having single-digit ratings in polls.

Far-right parties, which often have pro-Russian sympathies, also performed well in Romania’s parliamentary election last Sunday.

Vote counting in Romania

The anti-Western, right-wing extremist candidate Călin Georgescu unexpectedly won the most votes in the first round.November 25, 2024 | 2:20 mins

Second round of elections actually already underway

This Sunday he was supposed to face his center-right opponent, Elena Lasconi of the centrist party, in a runoff election.

According to ZDF correspondent Christian vonrechnerberg, 35,000 voters outside Romania are already scheduled to go to the ballot box today.

A person holds a smartphone in his hand. The ZDFheute WhatsApp channel can be seen on it.

Source: ZDF

Do you always want to stay up to date? Then you’ve come to the right place with our ZDFheute WhatsApp channel. Whether it’s for coffee in the morning, for lunch or at the end of the day – you get it the most important news directly to your smartphone. Take part in surveys or be inspired by our mini-podcast “Short Time Out”. Simply register for our WhatsApp channel here: ZDFheute WhatsApp channel.

Source: Reuters, AP, ZDF

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