In a shocking turn of events, the Constitutional Court of Romania calls off the presidential elections. The news came yesterday, just two days before citizens were ready to go to the stands and vote.
The first-round results
Romanians were headed to the polls on the 24th of november for the first round of the presidential elections. The favourites to go into the next round were PSD‘s Marcel Ciolacu and AUR‘s George Simion.
The exit polls, though, shocked everyone, as neither of the two managed to snatch enough votes to go through. Instead, citizens woke up on the 25th to see URS’ Elena Lasconi and far right representative, Calin Georgescu proceed to the fight for the Cotroceni seat. That came as a surprise as two weeks prior, no one knew who the independent candidate was. His rise to fame was made through TikTok, the platform he used to carry out his campaign.
The next couple of days divided the nation in half. People started looking into Georgescu’s past and questioned if his pro-Russia and UE and NATO scepticism were the right fit for a country like Romania. People responded to his online campaign through thousands of posts, trying to turn around the opinion of his voters. In light of this, his counterpart, Elena Lasconi, was seen as the exact opposite with a progressive view over the country’s future.
A recount was ordered
On the 28th the CCR decided to order a recount of all of the votes. It was a response to a couple of complaints raised. One was about Orban’s votes being counted in Lasconi’s account, as he had retired from the race. And the other regarding possible foreign inferences that boosted Calin Georgescu online as well as at the polls. Both of the candidates strongly disagreed with the CCR’s stance on the recount and possible annulment of the elections as it would infringe democratic principles and raise scepticism among the voters.
The initial plan was for the votes to be counted again by 2pm the second day, the 29th of November. It then was delayed until the 1st of December. The date coincided with the parliamentary elections, making it a questionable timing and determining people to wonder if the leading party of the last 35 years, PSD, was orchestrating everything from behind the scenes.
As Sunday arrived, the parliamentary elections took place and CCR’s decision came through. No change was made in the candidates for the second round, that was to take place one week later. Georgescu and Lasconi were set for a head to head fight that had everyone in Romania choose a side in line with their desired future.
The latest updates
The current president, Klaus Iohanis, has worked with the CSAT to declassify documents regarding Georgescu’s campaign and past. It has been discovered that despite statements that his campaign didn’t cost him anything, in fact there are records of payments, fake accounts traced back to South Africa and TikTok code infringements.
Polls for the Romanian citizens abroad have opened yesterday at dawn. As people were headed to go vote, the CCR shocked everyone with their latest decision regarding the elections. As of 4pm, on the 6th of December, for the first time in the history of the country the elections have been cancelled as a result of the discoveries made during the past days.
This raises a problem as not only 35000 people from outside the country had already voted by the time the decision was made, but such an outcome has huge influence on Romania’s credibility, economy and the citizen’s trust in the state organs. Right now the crisis is deepening as some are requesting the annulment of the parliamentary elections as well.
The biggest loser of these elections is the people’s faith in traditional media. The media that has failed them and fell into the trap of a corrupt system. As we see a rise in far right preferences throughout Europe at this point in time, these kind of disruptions only weaken the democratic system.
