Romania canceled its presidential election over foreign interference which had “a major and decisive impact on the electoral result” a top judge said on Wednesday.
“The irregularities were so huge that the only solution possible was to annul the whole electoral process,” the President of the Constitutional Court of Romania Marian Enache said in an interview published Wednesday.
In the first public comments made by the court since it invalidated elections on December 6, the judge said the ruling moreover protected Romanian democracy from malign interference.
The court acted after declassified intelligence reports revealed that a foreign actor, later confirmed as Russia, had intervened to support a far-right NATO skeptic Calin Georgescu who defied the polls to win a stunning top place in the first round.
Defending the ruling, court president Enache said there were “decisive irregularities…for the presidential election (which) concerned the candidates’ equal opportunities, the financing of the electoral campaign and the influence of the vote, therefore the fairness of the elections, as an expression of sovereignty.”
“I believe that the annulment of the electoral process….was a decision to defend the Romanian state and constitutional democracy, as well as to hold onto the achievements that Romania has made through the efforts of all Romanians in the country and in the diaspora since (it) won freedom and democracy in 1989 until now,” he told juridice.ro.
“These declassified documents, I repeat declassified, led to the unanimous conviction shared by all judges that the electoral process was flawed to such an extent that the electoral results and the order of the candidates were substantially affected,” he said.
“The Constitutional Court’s role is to prevent a situation in which (a candidate) could take the oath as President of Romania following a flawed electoral process,” the judge added.
He also ruled out holding a second round as supporters of Georgescu demand. .
“It is out of the question to resume the second round of the presidential election,” he said.
Asked why the court didn’t simply disqualify Mr. Georgescu over the interference which boosted his campaign, he said the whole process needed to start again.
“If you were asked to drink a glass of water which you knew had poison in it, would you try to extract the poison and drink the purified water or would you ask for another glass of water?”
The court ruling has proved divisive, raising tensions, especially with a lack of explanation why it was made. It has served to boost the profile of Georgescu, who is now the frontrunner for the May rerun.
It prompted U.S. Vice President JD Vance to hit out, accusing the court of relying on “flimsy evidence” to suppress ultra-conservative parties. “If your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with?” he said.
But European constitutional courts have the competence to invalidate the results of elections “precisely to protect the integrity of the democratic system”, Judge Enache explained.
“If a constitutional court can validate and confirm the results of elections, it means that it can also invalidate or annul them,” he added.
“Romania has traveled a difficult road, and sacrifices have been made by Romanians to embrace the values of free societies. It would be wrong to turn back from this road.”
US pressures Romania to let far-right candidate run in election-Bloomberg
