Against all expectations, Calin Georgescu came first in the first round of the presidential election in Romania.
AFP
Recount of ballots, request for “emergency measures” targeting TikTok, allegations of “cyber attacks”: the Romanian authorities are launching an all-out offensive after the shock result of a confidential far-right candidate who came to the top of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday.
The Constitutional Court ordered “unanimously” to carry out a new count, after being contacted by another candidate.
The court is due to meet again on Friday at 1:00 p.m. Swiss time.
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.
After several days of suspicion, the authorities openly questioned the platform, owned by the Chinese giant ByteDance, on Thursday.
Mr. Georgescu benefited from “preferential treatment” from this very popular application in Romania, said the Supreme Council of National Defense after a meeting devoted to cyber risks around the elections.
Without naming him, the presidential press release refers to the “massive exposure” to which he was entitled and calls for immediate measures, without specifying which ones.
According to TikTok, “it is categorically false to claim” that his account “was treated differently from that of other candidates.” It “was subject to exactly the same rules and restrictions,” the company maintains in a statement sent to AFP.
Calin Georgescu also protested against this attempt to blame the social network for its good score, and to “deny the ability of the Romanian people to think and choose according to their own moral, Christian and democratic principles”.
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”, noting “a growing interest” on the part of Russia (…) in the current context of regional security”.
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”.
“Unprecedented situation”
“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 on 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.
Centrist candidate Elena Lasconi, who came second and could have the most to lose in the recount given the small gap with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu (some 2,700 ballots), denounced the announcement by the Constitutional Court (CCR).
“She is playing with national security!” she protested. “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.
(afp)
