Romania’s constitutional court has annulled the first round of the country’s 2024 presidential election process, which was narrowly won by far-right ultranationalist candidate Calin Georgescu amid allegations of Russian interference.
The historic decision means a second-round runoff that was scheduled for Sunday, when Georgescu would have gone head to head with his centrist rival Elena Lasconi, will no longer take place.
Friday’s decision caps off a troubled election cycle in Romania, with the same court last week ordering a recount of the first-round votes.
It also comes just days after the vote was hit with fears over foreign interference, after declassified documents from Romania’s top security council found evidence of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks.”
They also showed Georgescu was boosted on TikTok – the social media platform on which he largely ran his campaign – through algorithms, coordinated accounts and paid promotion, Reuters reported.
In addition, the documents uncovered a series of cyber-attacks over the election period.
Georgescu, 62, started out his campaign with single-digit support but enjoyed a shock rise to prominence, narrowly emerging as leader in the election’s first round with 22.9% of the vote to Lasconi’s 19.2%.
This is a developing story and will be updated.