Romania will organize new presidential elections in May. Government spokesman Mihai Constantin announced on Thursday. The second round of the presidential election was canceled after the Romanian Constitutional Court in December annulled the results of the November first round due to illegal interference in the election campaign on social networks. Independent candidate Calin Georgescu won in the first round.
16.01.2025 14:38
The first round of repeated presidential elections will be held on May 4. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top 2 presidential candidates will advance to a second round on May 18, a government spokesman said.
On November 24, Georgescu won the first round of the election with almost 23 percent of the vote, despite minimal support in the polls. He ran the campaign mainly on the TikTok network. Among other things, he claimed that Romania must be neutral and spoke respectfully of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He won a lot of votes from young voters, including Romanians living abroad. Pro-European centrist Elena Lasconiová also advanced to the second round with the support of 19 percent of voters.
The Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round just two days before the second round, based on intelligence reports that Russia had influenced the election campaign. Investigative Romanian portal Snoop.ro later came up with information from the tax office that the rival National Liberal Party had ordered an indirect but large-scale campaign using more than a hundred influencers on TikTok in favor of Georgesca. However, the PR agency distanced itself from campaigning for Georgesco.
Romania’s Organized Crime Unit (DIICOT) launched an investigation into Georgesca’s campaign after analyzing the declassified documents.
Georgescu condemned the annulment of the election as a “formalized coup d’état”. He challenged it in the courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, writes AFP. The Strasbourg court said it had received Georgesco’s “request for interim measures” which it would examine by the end of January.
Last week, thousands of people protested in Bucharest against the annulment of the first round of elections. They demanded the resignation of President Klaus Iohannis, whose mandate was extended. According to the Romanian constitution, the head of state “executes his function until the oath of office of the newly elected president.”
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
