The Venice Commission has formally adopted its “Urgent Report on the cancellation of election results by Constitutional Courts” on the annulment of Romania’s presidential elections.
This was requested by the Council of Europe.
In short, it says that what happened in Romania should only have taken place in “extraordinary circumstances” (suggesting it was not the case here) – and even then, the electorate’s right to free elections should be preserved.
Romania caused a huge internal cancel with its annulment of presidential elections in November – December 2024, and gained media attention around the world (with something similar happening in Austria several years ago.
Romania’s Constitutional Court ruled that elections should be repeated in May 2025 after declassified documents from the Superior Council for National Defense (CSAT) revealed that the results had been influenced in favor of Călin Georgescu through covert online campaigns, foreign interference, and illegal campaign financing — obviously, the elephant in the room is Russia.
A preliminary Urgent Report was published by the Venice Commission in January.
As regards the principles it defined for free elections, what the Venice Commission took umbrage with was the ad hoc creation of a constitutional court made only to intervene in this case. It pointed out that Romania’s Permanent Electoral Authority should have handled the matter.
Obviously, this would have taken longer.
The key criterion for annulment, according to the report, is whether the integrity of the elections has been “irremediably affected” — and annulment should only be pursued if its results are less harmful than the outcome.
Moreover, it claims that the error was inborn to begin with, with the regulations on online campaign financing not being clear to begin with.
PSD and PNL are still state-funded in Romania.
In any case, the Venice Commission emphasized that Romania should learn a lesson about proactive oversight of campaigning.
But bottom line? Decisions to annul elections should not be based solely on classified information provided by intelligence services, as this would compromise transparency, says the Venice Commission.
