Romania annuls election after alleged Russian meddling

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Romania’s constitutional court has annulled last month’s first round of presidential elections after evidence that the leading candidate benefited from Russian intervention.

The unprecedented decision to strike down the vote, which was won by far-right candidate Călin Georgescu, came after documents published this week indicated Moscow co-ordinated hybrid attacks seeking to undermine the election.

“The electoral process for the election of the President of Romania will be repeated in its entirety,” with the government to set a new date for the vote, the court said on Friday.

Georgescu’s rise in recent weeks stunned the country and its western allies.

His first-round victory came even though he had no party behind him and claimed to have spent “zero” on his campaign, which was mainly on social media.

The Romanian national security council declassified several documents on Wednesday that alleged that Russia attempted to hack into the country’s electoral infrastructure and promote Georgescu on social media platforms.

This is a developing story