The Constitutional Court of Romania asked the Central Electoral Office this Thursday to recount the votes of the first round of the presidential elections, won by the ultranationalist and pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu.
The Constitutional Court has moved from today to Friday the session in which it plans to address two appeals that requested the annulment of the results.
The Court also requested additional information on possible irregularities in the financing of Georgescu’s campaign, who officially declared that he had not spent funds on his electoral promotion, despite carrying out intense electoral activity on social networks.
The decision to repeat the recount of the 9.4 million votes cast last Sunday is unprecedented and may also affect the candidates who will compete in the second round and the date of the elections itself.
In addition to Georgescu, who obtained almost 23% of the ballots, the pro-European Elena Lasconi went to the second round with 19%, but with only 2,740 votes difference over Marcel Ciolacu, prime minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
Ciolacu already announced his resignation as social democratic leader after being left out of the second round.
The president of the Permanent Electoral Authority, Toni Grebla, also recalled that the campaign for the second round will begin after the Constitutional Court validates the two candidates with the most votes, he explained to the Agerpres agency.
This means that the second round, initially scheduled for December 8, will be held on another date once the two candidates are validated after the new count.
Regarding the annulment appeals, one of them, presented by the presidential candidate Cristian Vasile Terheș, argues that the electoral process was plagued by irregularities, including the lack of transparency in the financing of the campaign and possible external interference.
A second appeal was rejected for having been submitted out of time, according to the newspaper Adevarul.
Both Lasconi and Ilie Bolojan, interim leader of the PNL, the largest center-right party, have urged the Constitutional Court to act with maximum responsibility, and asked to respect the popular vote.
According to the two politicians, ignoring the legitimate results could generate a serious crisis of confidence in the country’s democratic institutions.
In recent hours, the accusations against Georgescu have been redoubled to explain how he financed his campaign, with fear of possible Russian interference due to his speech against NATO and the European Union (EU).
The Permanent Electoral Authority asked the Prosecutor’s Office this Thursday to investigate Georgescu due to suspicions that he did not reveal expenses or contributions in his campaign.
Georgescu declared to the AEP that he had no contribution nor any expenses.
“It is a situation that deserves a detailed investigation, since it contradicts the usual dynamics of electoral campaigns,” said the president of the AEP, Toni Grebla.
The AEP revealed on Wednesday the expenses of the presidential candidates and Georgescu’s non-existent expenses contrast with the more than three million euros invested by Lasconi.
Meanwhile, outgoing president Klaus Iohannis has called an urgent meeting of the country’s Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) to investigate whether cyber attacks, possibly orchestrated by external actors, could have influenced the electoral process.
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