The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) unanimously rejected the request of far-right Romanian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu to suspend the Constitutional Courtʼs decision to annul the elections and resume the electoral process.
This is stated in the press release of the case "Celin Georgescu v. Romania".
The judges explained that they rejected the politician’s request because it fell outside the scope of Article 39 (on interim measures) of the Rules of Court. The article stipulates that the court may only take interim measures in the event of “an imminent risk of irreparable harm to a right set forth in the Convention on Human Rights.”
Georgescu demanded that the court force Bucharest to "take measures to remedy the moral and democratic damage" and restore confidence in the electoral process.
Before that, the High Court of Cassation of Romania rejected Georgescuʼs appeal, in which he challenged three decisions of the Central Electoral Bureau to declare the presidential elections invalid.
Presidential elections in Romania
The first round of the presidential election in Romania was held on November 24. Far-right politician Calin Georgescu and liberal pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi advanced to the second round. Lasconi beat the countryʼs incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu by just 2,700 votes.
Georgescuʼs leadership was unexpected, and he was accused of influencing the election through TikTok. Because of this, the European Commission even asked the platform to provide information on how the social network has reduced the risk of inauthentic or automated use of its service, as well as to list the risks arising from its recommended content system.
Romanian intelligence has found that the TikTok account bogpr, used by Romanian citizen Bogdan Pescir, participated in financing Georgescuʼs campaign. He made payments totaling $381,000 between October 24 and November 24 to users of TikTok accounts that participated in Georgescuʼs promotion.
Romaniaʼs Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election on December 6. A new vote was previously scheduled for spring 2025.