Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the court’s annulment decision was “the only correct decision.”
It comes after Romanian intelligence agencies ordered the declassification of documents describing what they said was a massive operation – carried out from abroad – to interfere with the vote.
The judges of the court met on Friday morning, although the previous evening they said that they would not discuss new information about possible external influence on the elections until the second round of voting.
The law stipulates that in the event of cancellation of the election, it will be resumed on the second Sunday after the date of cancellation, i.e. December 22.
However, the court decided to require the government to re-conduct the entire election process, and thus the election campaign.
Last week, a court ordered a recount of votes cast in Sunday’s first round after allegations that the social media platform TikTok gave “preferential treatment” to surprise winner Calin Georgescu.
Georgescu, a radical without his own party, campaigned mainly on TikTok. The platform said it was “categorically false to suggest that his account was treated differently than any other candidate.”
He won 23% of the votes, 19% – Alena Lasconi from the opposition Union of Salvation of Romania, who took the second place.
Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku of the ruling Social Democratic Party came in third.
The Constitutional Court also rejected lawsuits filed by two losing candidates who accused Georgescu of illegal campaign financing.
This week Georgescu denied to the BBC that he was a Moscow man.
He claimed that the political establishment could not handle his success and was trying to block him.
Now the country is in completely new political territory. And no one is sure what will happen next.
