Romania has been on edge ever since the shocking first round of the presidential elections on November 24th, which saw the little-known independent right-wing candidate Călin Georgescu win first place, while the liberal-progressive USR’s former TV anchor Elena Lasconi snatched the second place from Socialist (PSD) Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu with only 2,700 votes between them.
As we also reported, the socialist-aligned Constitutional Court (CCR) ordered a recount after the Defense Council (of which PM Ciolacu is a member) claimed to have found evidence of foreign interference in favor of Georgescu. Although they blamed it on Russia and TikTok aiding the “ultranationalist” candidate, some observers suggest the recount was the socialists’ last-ditch effort to take Lasconi’s place in the December 8th runoff.
The CCR was supposed to validate or annul the results of the first round by Friday, November 29th, but due to the recount, it delayed the “historic” decision until Monday afternoon, December 2. Now, with the 5 p.m. deadline over, the court is unable to move forward as some 640,000 votes have still not been counted, although “no fraud has been found,” officials say.
Nonetheless, the Central Electoral Office (BEC) handed over its documentation of the “partial recount” to the court, which so far shows Ciolacu overtaking Lasconi by 127,000 votes. At the same time, the BEC said that about 78% of the diaspora votes have not yet been taken into account, and those 643,000 votes will probably put Lasconi on top again. After all, Lasconi received over 200,000 votes from the diaspora according to the first count, ten times as many as Ciolacu.
“From the examination of the minutes of recounting, comparing them with the minutes after the election, there is no element that leads us to the idea that the order of the competitors changes,” said Toni Greblă, the head of Romania’s Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP).
At the same time, Greblă warned that all the delays might cause the postponement of the second round, which by law should always be held two weeks after the first round.
“This means that we must amend the law and write there that it can be organized in the second week after the CCR has validated or invalidated the November 24 election. Without amending the law, the period of two weeks from the first ballot” may not be exceeded, he explained.
Lasconi herself said that it cannot be ruled out that “Russia put its hand” on the elections in one way or another during the campaign, but by ordering a recount due to completely baseless accusations of direct electoral fraud, the CCR was “intervening in the democratic process.”
“The CCR is playing with our national security!” the liberal candidate said. “What the [Court] is trying to do now is absolutely awful for a democratic country. I am here to defend democracy and call on the Central Electoral Bureau to treat the recount of votes wisely. The law must be the same for all, not interpreted differently for some.”
