Liberal Forum

Romania’s Constitutional Court has dismissed the victory of independent candidate Calin Georgescu in the first round of votingRomania’s Constitutional Court has annulled the results of the first round of the national presidential election after independent candidate Calin Georgescu clinched a surprise win last month.The decision comes amid accusations that Russia had allegedly assisted Georgescu’s campaign. Moscow has dismissed them as “absolutely groundless.”Georgescu, a religious nationalist, has on multiple occasions been critical of both NATO and the EU, and has criticized Romania’s role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He has also promised to end all military and political assistance to Kiev if elected into office.During the first round of voting in November, Georgescu secured 22.94% of the ballots, beating out the liberal leftist candidate Elena Lasconi, who received 19.18%. The two were scheduled for a runoff on Sunday.

 However, on Friday, the country’s constitutional court issued a ruling annulling “the entire electoral process regarding the election of the President of Romania” and announced that the whole process will be resumed in its entirety at a later date.Earlier in the day, Romanian media reported that judges of the court had gathered for an urgent meeting to examine a large number of requests to annul the election. The demands cited recently declassified intelligence documents by the Supreme Defense Council, which claimed that there were irregularities to Georgescu’s result.

continued....