Hours after the court’s decision, Georgescu told a Romanian TV channel that the country’s democracy was “under attack”, describing the verdict as a “formalised coup d’etat”.
He said he would “go forward through the voting process”, implying that he would try to run again for president.
Outgoing Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said the court’s decision to annul was “the only correct solution after the declassification of the documents… which show that the result of the Romanians’ vote was blatantly distorted as a result of Russia’s intervention”.
In an address on Friday evening, current President Klaus Iohannis confirmed he would remain in the role until a new president was elected.
He said Romania was a stable, safe and solid country, one that remained safely and solidly pro-European and an ally to Nato.
The judges of the court met on Friday morning, despite having announced the previous night that they would not discuss new information regarding possible external influence on the elections until the second round of voting.
The law stipulates that, in the event of the annulment of the elections, they should resume on the second Sunday after the date of the annulment – which would have meant on 22 December.
However, the court has decided to ask the government to rerun the entire electoral process, and therefore the electoral campaign.
Last week, the court had ordered a recount of votes cast in Sunday’s first round following allegations that social media platform TikTok gave “preferential treatment” to the surprise winner, Calin Georgescu.
Georgescu, a radical with no party of his own, campaigned mainly on TikTok. The platform said it was “categorically false to claim his account was treated differently to any other candidate”.
He won 23% of the vote, with 19% for the runner-up, Elena Lasconi, of the opposition Save Romania Union and Ciolacu of the governing Social Democrats in third.
