Court examines challenge to presidential election

Romania’s Constitutional Court could annul the first round of the presidential election, in which the pro-Russian right-wing extremist Calin Georgescu came first. Two of the losing presidential candidates have contested the election – according to media reports, primarily on the grounds that Georgescu did not disclose the financing of his election campaign. According to the published agenda, the court wants to rule on this on Thursday.

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

Georgescu had told the central electoral authority that he had run his campaign with “zero” funding. He primarily advertised himself on the Internet platform Tiktok. Many experts pointed out that such an online campaign would not be possible without significant financial resources. A Romanian influencer explained that he was paid to promote Georgescu.

Accusation of foreign financing

Georgescu violated two sections of the law and EU regulations, the defeated presidential candidates Sebastian Constantin Popescu and Cristian Terhes wrote to the Constitutional Court, according to media reports. On the one hand, he did not disclose the financing, and secondly, he received money from abroad, which is prohibited in Romania. Numerous commentators in Romania suspect that Russia was behind Georgescu’s election success.

In addition, EU regulations were violated, according to which political advertising must be labeled as such online and its financing must be stated, the plaintiffs wrote. In Romania, election results generally have to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court after examining any possible challenges.