Romania's top court annuls first round of presidential vote won by far-right candidate

Romania's Supreme Court announced on Friday that the country's first round of presidential elections was invalid. This move comes days after allegations that Russia launched a coordinated cyber operation aimed at promoting the far-right, unconventional candidate who won the first round of voting.

The Constitutional Court made this unprecedented and final decision. This followed President Klaus Iohannis' declassification on Wednesday of intelligence claiming that Russia ran a vast operation, including thousands of social media accounts, to promote Călin Georgescu on platforms like TikTok and Telegram.

Despite being an outsider who claimed to have spent zero on his campaign, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner on November 24th. He was scheduled to face reformist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party in a runoff vote on Sunday. Now, the date will be reset, and the first round of voting will be held again.

These intelligence documents came from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service, and the Ministry of Interior. Following the release of the intelligence, the Romanian Constitutional Court received multiple legal complaints urging it to declare the first round of voting invalid, although the specific basis for the court's decision remains unclear.

Last week, the same court had ordered a recount of the first-round votes, further adding to the various controversies in this chaotic election cycle.