Court annuls presidential elections in Romania. Georgescu invites voters to the polls
8 December ballot between Georgescu and Lasconi cancelled
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Far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu has called on Romanians to go to the polling stations tomorrow, after the Constitutional Court annulled the vote on suspicion of Russian interference in his favour. Georgescu 'believes that voting is a vested right, which is why he believes Romanians have the right to turn up at polling stations tomorrow,' a statement released by his electoral team explained, pointing out that the candidate will go to an office on the outskirts of the capital Bucharest.
All to do over. Romania again falls into political and electoral chaos. No ballot, Romania's Constitutional Court has annulled the outcome of the first round of the presidential elections, held on 24 November, after the desecration of some confidential documents allegedly showing foreign interference, primarily from Russia. This was a surprise decision, just a few days after the Court's announcement that the election count was regular and confirmed the runoff for Sunday 8 December.
The Court, the statement reads, 'annulled the entire process of the Romanian president's election' to 'guarantee the validity and legality' of the vote and demanded that 'the entire electoral process' be restarted from the beginning. The run-off scheduled for Sunday 8 December between the pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi and the extreme right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu, who came out ahead in the first round, was therefore annulled.
Romania, it should be remembered, belongs to the EU and NATO
.Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu - leader of the Social Democratic Party and big loser in the first round of the presidential elections last 24 November, in which he came only third after Calin Georgescu and Elena Lasconi - welcomes the Court's decision. Ciolacu said: &l; Annulment of the entire electoral process is the only positive solution after the declassification of intelligence documents on foreign interference in the vote, documents that indicate, he pointed out, a result falsified by Russia's intervention >.
Georgescu's party: 'It's a coup'
On the other hand, the leader of the main far-right party George Simion cries coup d'état, calling the cancellation of the entire presidential election process a 'full-scale coup d'état'. "But we will not take to the streets. The system must fall democratically,' he says. Simion is the president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians party, which won 18% of the vote in last Sunday's legislative elections, the second largest party after the Social Democrats. The independent but far-right candidate, Calin Georgescu, who surprisingly won the first round of the presidential elections was part of the Alliance. Simion, who was the favoured candidate of the extreme right, had instead only come fourth in the first round of the presidential election, behind former party mate Georgescu, Elena Lasconi and outgoing PM Marcel Ciolacu.
