Romania’s Constitutional Court annuls first-round presidential election results over meddling

This was reported by the AP, Ukrinform saw.

The Constitutional Court's decision is final, and was made after President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday declassified intelligence data alleging that Russia executed a large-scale campaign using thousands of accounts on the social media platforms TikTok and Telegram to promote Calin Georgescu. Despite Georgescu being an outsider who declared zero campaign spending, he won on November 24. In the runoff, which was scheduled for Sunday, he would have faced reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party.

Read also: EU demands TikTok explain Romanian intelligence data suggesting Moscow’s election meddling

A new date will now be set for the rerun of the first round.

The intelligence was obtained from the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In light of the release of the intelligence data, Romania's Constitutional Court has received numerous legal complaints calling for the annulment of the results of the first round, but it is not yet clear on what grounds it made such a decision.

Last week, the same court ordered a recount of the votes.

Read also: TikTok CEO could be summoned to EP over influence on Romanian elections

As Ukrinform reported, on November 25, 99.9% of voters in the presidential election were counted in Romania, showing that the two t scorers were Calin Georgescu and Elena Lasconi, both advancing to the runoff. Georgescu, a low-profile pitician, received 23%. He is a vocal critic of NATO, of which Romania is member. He has claimed that the Alliance would not protect any of its members if attacked by Russia.

Documents declassified by Romania’s Supreme Security Council on Wednesday say the country was the target of “Russia’s aggressive hybrid attacks” during the recent presidential election.