Calin Georgescu: Romania’s Constitutional Court will decide on Monday whether to annul the first round of presidential elections won by a pro-Russian candidate. international

Romania is facing days of great turmoil. The Constitutional Court has postponed this Friday’s decision to cancel the first round of the presidential election – which took place on November 24 and was won by far-right and pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu – until next Monday. It has been postponed till the results come. Count requested on Thursday. The postponement comes just two days before highly competitive legislative elections, which the main far-right party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), is likely to win. Another option away from the traditional parties, although no relation to Georgescu.

The President of the Permanent Electoral Office explained in an intervention on Radio Romania Actualitai this Friday that, if the Constitutional Court decides to cancel the first round of presidential elections, Romanians will be called to vote again on December 15. For the first round and 29th of the same month for the second round.

To enhance the security of the recount, the election authority this Friday sent a circular to all offices where the process is taking place so that the results are not disclosed. “We draw attention to the obligation to maintain maximum stringency of confidentiality of data recorded in the centralization minutes relating to the results of counting of validly cast votes and void votes,” they elaborated in the note.

However, according to analysts, a sense of anarchy is already pervading the entire electoral process, which may give the far-right parties an advantage. The last poll, released this Friday, before the Constitutional Court announced after two hours of deliberations that it would analyze whether or not to annul the election, recommends that the AU, headed by extremist George Simian, be annulled. In comparison, it will get 22.4% votes. 21.4% of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which has led the polls so far.

For its part, the Save Romania Union (USR) – the other final candidate for the presidential election, conservative Elena Lasconi – will gain 17.5%, while the National Liberal Party will remain with 13.4%. The Democratic Union of Hungarians of Romania (UDMR), which has almost always supported governments since the country achieved democracy 35 years ago, will enter parliament as the fifth party with 5.5%.

Georgescu lacks a political faction to run in these legislative elections, but the Young People’s Party (POT, which means I Can in Romanian) has always supported him. However, polling companies show that the party will not be able to cross the 5% threshold to enter Parliament. Nor did the formation of the equally radical and pro-Russian Diana Șoacă (SOS).

For its part, Elena Lasconi’s USR party has condemned “a new abuse of the system controlled by Marcel Ciolacu (the current Prime Minister) and the PSD” this Friday, when the Central Electoral Office imposed a ban on representatives of structures in the electoral offices. Had decided. On counting of votes. “The recount process is a complete fraudulent scheme. The circular from BEC (Electoral Office) today (for this Friday) talks about hiding the minutes and has no legal basis. On the contrary, the Romanian Constitution guarantees the people the right of access to any information of public interest, and the electoral outcome of the recount process is clearly of public interest,” said USR campaign coordinator Cristian Seidler. The electoral office had already rejected USR’s proposal to record the entire vote counting process.

Only 2,700 votes separate Lasconi and Social Democrat Ciolacu, so a recount could give the current head of the executive second place. However, the politician has already said that in that case he would withdraw from the election, leaving centre-right politics step by step to face a second round.

The country’s Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) on Thursday provided legal grounds to cancel the first round and expel Georgescu from the presidential race, as was done with Șoacă. Specifically, CSAT indicated that the candidate received preferential treatment during his campaign on TikTok. In addition to bias, the Chinese platform has also been accused of ignoring the Central Election Office’s decision to mark materials related to elections and political structures as election propaganda.

“Georgescu’s fraudulent campaign on TikTok does not amount to election fraud. No party reported fraud during the voting or counting process. To date, no one has provided legal evidence to order the cancellation of the first round,” says journalist Cristian Pantazzi. “The recount process completely escapes public scrutiny, observers, and in some districts candidates do not have delegates. Moreover, it is so technically complex to accomplish that mistakes are bound to happen, not to mention acts of bad faith,” he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced at a press conference this Friday that Russia is not involved in the elections in Romania or other countries, the Russian state agency TASS reports. “(In Russia) we are not used to interfering in the elections of other countries, in this case in the elections of Romania. Any accusations in this regard are absolutely baseless, rather it is a way to imitate the trend that exists in the West in this regard,” Peskov said.