FILE PHOTO: Young people protest against the far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu, who entered the run-off of the presidential elections, in Bucharest, Romania, November 25, 2024. REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu/File Photo
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Romania's top court on Friday postponed a decision on whether to annul the first round of a presidential election until Dec. 2, after a shock result caused suspicions of interference in the campaign.
The court will now issue its ruling on Monday, one day after a parliamentary election in the NATO and European Union member state.
Independent far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, finished first in last Sunday's vote, and secured a place in a run-off scheduled for Dec. 8. Victory in the second round would upend politics in Romania and could undermine its pro-Western stance.
Romanian authorities say they have found evidence of meddling in the election campaign by hostile actors, and the Constitutional Court is yet to validate the results.
The court has ordered a recount of the 9.46 million votes cast in the first round while also considering a request by a defeated conservative candidate to annul the first-round vote.
The uncertainty has caused political chaos and confusion as the country of 19 million prepares for Sunday's parliamentary election, in which the far-right is expected to make gains.
Electoral Commission Chief Toni Grebla told Radio Romania Actualitati that the first round would be rerun if the Constitutional Court decides to annul the result, adding: "We hope that this (recount) ends as soon as possible."
He said the court would then be able to decide to "validate or invalidate the Nov. 24 ballot".
If it announces a rerun, he said, the first round of voting in the presidential election could take place on Dec. 15 and the run-off could be on Dec. 29.
According to Romanian law, the court can annul the result of the first-round vote only it finds evidence of fraud affecting the identities of the two candidates who reached the run-off.
The election results put fewer than 3,000 votes between the runner-up, centrist Elena Lasconi, and the third-placed candidate, Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
By law, the top court needs to validate the first round result by Nov. 29 for the run-off vote to go ahead on Dec. 8 as scheduled.
KREMLIN DENIES INTERFERENCE
Romania's Supreme Defence Council said it had evidence of interference, that Romania was a target for hostile actors such as Russia, and that TikTok had given one candidate more exposure and had not forced him to label his content as electoral.
TikTok rejected the accusations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any accusations of Russian interference in Romania's presidential election were groundless.
Georgescu has previously praised 1930s Romanian fascist politicians as national heroes and martyrs, has been critical of NATO and Romania's stance on Ukraine, and has said Bucharest should engage, not challenge, Russia.
Grebla told Reuters on Thursday that Sunday's parliamentary election would go ahead as planned.
Political analysts say the political chaos is likely to increase support for the far right.
An AtlasIntel poll conducted from Nov. 26-28 showed the hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) leading the field with 22.4% support. It was narrowly ahead of the governing Social Democrats on 21.4%, whose support has waned.
Public confidence in national institutions could also be undermined by the chaos, political analysts said.
"We are in a place where the Constitutional Court decides for the Romanian collective public life in a manner that supersedes its purpose and it will lead to a situation in which Romanians no longer trust in anything," said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University.
Bucharest resident Emilia Gasu said she thought there could be a different result after any recount.
"Gosh, the (political) fights we'll see," she said.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Anca Cernat, Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Timothy Heritage)
