Chaos in Romania, with the recount of the first round of the presidential election

Photo: Daniel Mihailescu Agence France-Presse Calin Georgescu, a far-right pro-Russian candidate for the Romanian presidential election, speaks with journalists on November 26, 2024 in Izvorani, Romania.

Ani Sandu – Agence France-Presse in Bucharest

Published at 14:40

• Europe

Recount of ballots, request for “emergency measures” targeting TikTok, allegations of “cyberattacks”: the Romanian authorities are launching an all-out offensive after the shock result of a confidential far-right candidate in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday.

The Constitutional Court has “unanimously” ordered a new count, after being petitioned by another candidate.

The court is due to meet again on Friday at 2 p.m. (12 p.m. GMT).

However, it rejected another appeal, received “late,” which denounced the opaque financing of the campaign of Calin Georgescu, who unexpectedly came out on top in the first round.

This former senior civil servant, An admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and opponent of aid to Ukraine, he spectacularly advanced to the second round after a TikTok campaign that went viral.

“Preferential treatment” on TikTok

After several days of suspicion, the authorities openly blamed the platform, owned by the Chinese giant ByteDance, on Thursday.

Mr. Georgescu benefited from “preferential treatment” from this very popular application in Romania, the Supreme Council of National Defense affirmed after a meeting devoted to cyber risks around the elections.

Without naming him, the presidency’s statement refers to the “massive exposure” to which he was entitled and calls for immediate measures, without specifying what.

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According to TikTok, “it is categorically false to claim” that his account “was treated differently from those of the other candidates.” It “was subject to exactly the same rules and restrictions,” the company said in a statement sent to AFP.

Calin Georgescu also protested against this attempt to blame the social network for its good score, and to “deny the Romanian people’s ability to think and choose according to their own moral, Christian and democratic principles.”

The European Commission has already been seized by the media regulatory authority with a request for “a formal investigation into the role” of the social network.

Under the Digital Services Regulation (DSR), TikTok has “an obligation to assess and mitigate systemic risks related to electoral processes,” Brussels recalls.

If the Commission “suspects an infringement, it can therefore open a procedure to verify compliance” with the commitments made by the platform.

Finally, Romania says it has observed “cyberattacks” aimed at “influencing the regularity of the electoral process,” noting “a growing interest” on the part of Russia […] in the current context of regional security. “

Anti-democratic “manoeuvres”

According to the law, the election can be annulled if “frauds likely to alter the results or the order of arrival of the candidates” are discovered.

“This is an unprecedented situation” since the fall of communism and the democratic transition in 1989, a former judge at the Court, Augustin Zegrean, commented on the Romanian channel Digi24. “Things could go very badly,” he fears, while the electoral calendar is very tight.

Romanians will indeed return to the polls on Sunday to elect parliament, before the second round of the presidential election on December 8, if all goes well.

The results of November 24 have caused shockwaves in this Eastern European country of 19 million inhabitants.

A neighbor of Ukraine, a member of the EU and NATO, Romania had until now resisted nationalist positions, setting itself apart from Hungary and Slovakia in particular.

The centrist candidate Elena Lasconi, who came in second and could have the most to lose in the recount given the small gap with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu (some 2,700 ballots), denounced the Constitutional Court's announcement (CCR).

“She is playing with national security!” she protested. “What the CCR is now trying to do is absolutely terrible in a democratic country.”

“Extremism is fought at the ballot box, not through behind-the-scenes maneuvers,” added the 52-year-old candidate, recalling that the Court had already interfered in the electoral process.

In October, it had excluded a far-right elected official, Diana Sosoaca, from the presidential election on the grounds that her statements were contrary to “democratic values,” a decision that had caused an outcry in the country.