Politics Romania: Votes in presidential election to be recounted

Romania's Constitutional Court has ordered the recount of all ballots cast in the first round of the presidential election last Sunday. At the same time, the court rejected one of two applications to annul this ballot.

The application had been submitted later than the permitted deadline. The Constitutional Court announced this on its website. The next court hearing was scheduled for Friday.

Two candidates who were defeated in the first round had applied for the election to be annulled on the grounds that the first-placed pro-Russian right-wing radical Calin Georgescu had not disclosed the sources of funding for his election campaign and had also received money from abroad. Both facts were in breach of Romanian law.

Georgescu came first in the first round with 22.94 percent of the vote, followed by the conservative-liberal politician Elena Lasconi with 19.17 percent. The decisive run-off between the two is scheduled for December 8. The parliamentary elections will also take place in Romania on December 1.

Georgescu had told the central electoral authority that he had run his campaign with "zero" financial resources. He had mainly campaigned on the internet platform Tiktok. Numerous experts pointed out that such an online campaign is not possible without considerable financial resources. Several Romanian influencers stated that they had been paid to advertise for Georgescu.

SDA