Romania starts vote recount after reports of irregularities and ‘cyber attacks’

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Romania’s election authority on Friday began recounting the votes cast in last week’s first round of presidential elections, following the surprise victory of a fringe pro-Vladimir Putin ultranationalist.

The Constitutional Court had ordered the recount after reports of irregularities and “cyber attacks” on election infrastructure following Sunday’s shock results. The court is expected to rule early next week on the legality of the first round, with an election rerun potentially held in December.

The electoral commission has set a deadline to complete the vote count of 10pm on Sunday, when polls close in the country’s parliamentary election held that day. If the top court orders a rerun of the presidential vote, it could be held on December 15, with a run-off planned for December 29 if no candidate secures 50 per cent of the votes, said Toni Greblă, head of the electoral commission.

Authorities this week started multiple investigations into how Călin Georgescu, a 62-year-old agriculture engineer and former honorary member of the far-right AUR party won the first round of the election after carrying out a campaign almost exclusively on social media.

His success sent shockwaves throughout Romania’s political establishment, who see Georgescu’s open admiration for Putin, Russia’s president, and his hostility to the EU and Nato as a risk that could undermine the country’s —and regional — security.

The country’s top national security body, led by outgoing President Klaus Iohannis, on Thursday said there was reason to suspect foul play and foreign interference. It said that Russia had a “growing interest” to influence the public agenda in Romania and other countries on Nato’s eastern flank where elections are due, including by carrying out “hostile actions”.

Germany’s spy chief on Friday also warned of potential Russian meddling in snap general elections due in February.

Asked about interference in the Romanian vote, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Moscow “did not meddle in Romania’s electoral process” as it was “not in the habit of meddling in the elections of other countries”.

Romania’s neighbour and close ally, Moldova, was also watching nervously after its own authorities said they had detected significant Russian interference in the recent referendum on EU membership, which was won by a razor-thin margin, as well as in presidential elections in Chișinău.

Moldova’s pro-EU President Maia Sandu secured her re-election against a pro-Russian candidate, but by a much closer margin than most analysts anticipated.

“Dear Romanians, the fate of the Republic of Moldova is closely linked to the fate of Romania,” Sandu said on Friday in a Facebook post. “Now the Kremlin wants us back in its shadow [but] see what the Kremlin does to its neighbours: it blackmails them, bombs them, kills them.”

“Our democracies are not perfect, but returning to a regime that is on the side of the aggressor is a step back towards isolation, poverty, dictatorship,” she said. “We don’t want the Kremlin to dictate Bucharest’s relations with Chișinău.”