Rejection of the appeal concerning the financing of Calin Georgescu
He believes that this may have favored Elena Lasconi, the centrist mayor of a small town who came in second place, just ahead of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who found himself excluded from the race even though he was the favorite. The court is due to reconvene on Friday at 2:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT).
On the other hand, she rejected another appeal, received “late”, which denounced the opaque financing of the campaign of Calin Georgescu, who unexpectedly arrived at the head of the first round.
This former senior official, admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and opposed to aid to Ukraine, spectacularly rose to the second round after a campaign on TikTok that went viral.
“Preferential treatment” on TikTok
After several days of suspicion, the authorities openly questioned the platform, owned by the Chinese giant Byte Dance, on Thursday. Calin Georgescu benefited from “preferential treatment” from this very popular application in Romania, said the Supreme Council of National Defense after a meeting dedicated to cyber risks in elections.
Without naming him, the presidential press release mentions the “massive exposure” from which he benefited, and calls for immediate measures, without specifying which ones. The day before, TikTok had denounced “erroneous and misleading” allegations.
The European Commission has already received a request from the media regulatory authority for a “formal investigation into the role” of the social network. As part of the Digital Services Regulation (DDA), TikTok has “the obligation to assess and mitigate systemic risks linked to electoral processes”, recalls Brussels. If the Commission “suspects an infringement, it can therefore open a procedure to verify compliance” with the commitments made by the platform.
Finally, Romania says it has noted “cyberattacks” aimed at “influencing the regularity of the electoral process” in progress, noting “a growing interest on the part of Russia (…) in the current context of regional security”.
An “unprecedented situation” since 1989
According to the legislation, the election can be canceled in the event of the discovery of “fraud likely to alter the results or the order of arrival of the candidates”.
“This is an unprecedented situation” since the fall of communism and the democratic transition in 1989, commented a former judge at the Court, Augustin Zegrean, on the Romanian channel Digi24. “Things risk going very badly,” he fears, while the electoral calendar is very tight.
Romanians are indeed returning to the polls this Sunday to elect Parliament, before the second round of the presidential election on December 8, if all goes well. The results of November 24 caused shock waves in this Eastern European country of 19 million inhabitants.
Neighbor of Ukraine, member of the EU and NATO, Romania had until now resisted nationalist positions, distinguishing itself in particular from Hungary and Slovakia.
Elena Lasconi, the one who could have the most to lose in the recount as the gap which separates her from Mr. Ciolacu is small (some 2,700 ballots), denounced the announcement of the Constitutional Court (CCR). “She is playing with national security!”, she protested in a press release. “What the CCR is now trying to do is absolutely terrible in a democratic country.”
“Extremism is fought at the ballot box, not through behind-the-scenes maneuvers,” added the 52-year-old candidate, recalling that the Court had already interfered in the electoral process. In October, she excluded a far-right elected official, Diana Sosoaca, from the presidential election on the grounds that her statements were contrary to “democratic values”, a decision which caused an outcry in the country.
