Politics Controversial election recount begins in Romania

In Romania, the recount of all ballots from the first round of the presidential election ordered by the Constitutional Court has begun. This was reported by Romanian media.

The process is highly controversial because the recount does not take place under the same transparent conditions as a regular count in Romania. There are also accusations of political partisanship against the court in favor of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) candidate.

Furthermore, there are fears that the action will give a boost to the extreme right-wing forces and favor them in the parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday, because they could present themselves as "victims of the system".

"The Constitutional Court is putting national security at risk," said the conservative-liberal presidential candidate Elena Lasconi. Her party USR has challenged the Constitutional Court's order for a recount at the Court of Appeal in Bucharest. Lasconi came second in the first round of voting with 19.17 percent, behind the far-right and Russia-friendly candidate Calin Georgescu, who surprisingly came first with 22.94 percent.

Recount without observers

Normally in Romania, representatives of all parliamentary parties observe the voting process at every polling station and take part in the counting of the ballot papers. They confirm the accuracy of the count with their signatures. Everything is recorded by cameras.

None of this is the case when the votes are recounted. It is carried out by state employees. Observers are not permitted and there is no camera surveillance, as the central electoral office decided. In addition, the number of these counters is far lower than in the regular counting process, so there is also a fear of unintentional errors.

Accusation of political partisanship against the Constitutional Court

Numerous commentators had accused the Constitutional Court of wanting to favor the presidential candidate from the social democratic PSD, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, with its own decision to recount the votes. Ciolacu came third in the first round with 19.14 percent - only 2,740 votes behind Lasconi. He therefore missed out on a place in the run-off.

The Constitutional Court has long been considered PSD-friendly. According to critics, the aim was a new count result with Ciolacu in second place. Ciolacu initially declared on Facebook that he would withdraw his candidacy in any case. He later toned it down: he was not interested in second place, which would be allocated to him "at the green table" - i.e. non-transparently.

There is also the question of whether the Constitutional Court might annul the first election round completely. Two of the losing presidential candidates have contested the election. The court postponed its decision, originally planned for Friday, until Monday.

SDA