Monday, January 13

Tens of thousands of Romanians have taken to the streets to protest against the cancellation of the country's presidential election after allegations of a skewed election with Russian involvement.

One month ago, on December 6, Romania's Constitutional Court decided to declare the election invalid after far-right candidate Calin Georgescu ended up with a lead in the first round on November 24. Since no candidate had achieved a majority in the first round, the second round was set to take place on December 8, but the Court annulled the election due to Russian interference in the election process.

The Constitutional Court found that Georgescu had claimed that he had spent zero money on his campaign, which came as a surprise to many. The Court claimed afterwards that Georgescu had illegally used technology like artificial intelligence for election purposes and used undeclared funds, serving as the main grounds for their reelection decision.

Georgescu's primary source of popularity was TikTok, with 646,000 followers and over 7.2 million likes, but people believe that the numbers may have been falsified or that TikTok may have been biased toward Georgescu. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis stated that Russia had created thousands of social media accounts on platforms to promote Georgescu, making the waters murky as to how popular Georgescu actually was, while government intelligence found that TikTok users had been paying each other to promote Georgescu.

Due to these factors, the election on December 8 was annulled. Georgescu strongly expressed his feelings for the decision online, saying "democracy is under attack," while the centrist-right candidate in second place denounced the attack as well. While the Court claimed that the cancellation of the election was necessary, it has sparked outrage among the people.

Far-right parties have urged people to take to the streets to protest the reelection, and people have done so. Tens of thousands of people have lined streets across the capital city of Bucharest waving red, yellow, and blue Romanian flags, while others have held up signs calling for the restoration of democracy. Many protestors are calling for the Court to cancel the annulment of the December 8 election, while others have called out the government for skewing the election by preventing them from voting.

The reelection, which will be a complete repeat of the election process, is scheduled for May 4, but if no party wins a majority, then the second round will take place on May 18. However, the Court has not confirmed whether Georgescu will be allowed to run in the election.

Upcoming Events:

• Winter World University Games Begin (Monday, January 13)

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