Romania’s top court has ordered a recount of votes in the first round of the country’s presidential election to rule out fraud.
The presidential office said separately that officials had detected online efforts to influence the vote, which was won by a little-known far-right candidate.
The court said on Thursday it had decided unanimously to order Romania’s central electoral bureau to “recheck and recount all valid and invalid ballots” cast in Sunday’s election, won by the Moscow-friendly ultranationalist Călin Georgescu.
The presidency said officials had reported “cyberattacks aimed at influencing the correctness of the electoral process” in Sunday’s vote and noted “a growing interest” on the part of Russia “to influence the public agenda in Romanian society”.
In a statement issued after a meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defence, the presidency also alleged that the social media platform TikTok had not respected legal rules regulating the electoral process.
Without naming Georgescu, the statement suggested he “benefited from massive exposure due to preferential treatment” granted by the platform, which “did not mark him as a political candidate”. It added that “necessary steps” should be taken.
TikTok has previously dismissed such allegations, saying it enforces guidelines against election misinformation and most candidates campaigned on its platform and on others.
A spokesperson on Thursday said in reference to Georgescu’s account: “It is categorically false to claim that his account was treated differently from those of other candidates.”
The news website Digi24 reported that the constitutional court’s recount order related to an allegation of fraud over votes awarded to the centre-right candidate Elena Lasconi, who finished second and is due to face Georgescu in the runoff on 8 December.
That complaint called for the court to annul the first-round result, something it will decide on at a meeting on Friday. A separate allegation of electoral fraud made against Georgescu was rejected on the grounds that it was submitted too late.
The central election bureau was to meet later on Thursday to discuss the court’s ruling, but its president, Toni Greblă, told Romanian media that once the official request had been received it could take days to recount the roughly 9.5m votes.
Observers have said the ruling risks diminishing the credibility of Romania’s state institutions in the run up to the parliamentary ballot and presidential runoff, viewed as critical to the future direction of a hitherto reliable EU and Nato ally.
It will also add to the turmoil surrounding the first round of voting, which Georgescu, who was polling at about 5% days before the vote, won comfortably after a campaign heavily based on viral TikTok videos reportedly boosted by bot-like activity.
On Wednesday, the deputy head of the country’s telecoms regulator, Ancom, said it was calling for the suspension of TikTok, a Chinese-owned platform, from Thursday, pending an investigation into possible election manipulation.
Pavel Popescu said the call was based on evidence of “manipulation of the electoral process”. Romania’s national defence council is also analysing potential national security risks from “cyber state and non-state entities” in the electoral process.
In addition, the national audiovisual council, CNA, has called on the European Commission to investigate TikTok’s role, saying it suspected “manipulation of public opinion” and “algorithmic amplification” of posts favouring a particular candidate.
In October, the constitutional court banned another far-right politician from running in the presidential election in a decision that many analysts, civil rights groups and some political parties said had overstepped its powers.
Lasconi on Thursday condemned the court’s decision, saying it was “interfering in the democratic process for the second time”. She added: “One combats extremism through votes, not backstage games.”
Georgescu has called for an end to the war in Ukraine, denied the existence of Covid-19, described two second world war-era Romanian fascists as “national heroes” and claimed that in foreign affairs Romania would benefit from “Russian wisdom”.
