The first round of the presidential elections in Romania, which took place on November 24, may be repeated, said the head of the national electoral commission, quoted by Reuters. It was won by the radical right-wing and pro-Russian Calin Georgescu. The decision on this matter is to be made today.
If the Constitutional Court decides to invalidate the first round of the presidential elections, it will be repeated on December 15. The second round would take place on December 29, the head of the electoral commission announced on Friday. The hearing in this case is scheduled for today (Friday) at 2 p.m. (1 p.m. in Poland).
The Constitutional Court decided on Thursday to recount the votes in the first round of the elections. In it, the pre-election leader was eliminated – with the third result pollsthe current leftist Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, and he was only three thousand votes short of reaching the second round.
Rejected request to invalidate the elections
In a statement, the Constitutional Court announced that after considering the applications of one of the candidates, Cristian Terhes, to invalidate the elections, it ordered the Central Electoral Office (BEC) to recount the votes in the first round of the presidential elections. BEC is to submit the verification results to the Constitutional Court. At the same time, the court announced that it had rejected a request to invalidate the elections, submitted by another candidate, Sebastian-Constantin Popescu. He won the first round of elections representative of the radical right, independent candidate Colin Georgescu, a previously little-recognized politician. In second place was Elena Lasconi, head of the center-right Union of Salvation Romania (USR).
The second round of elections – at least at the moment – is scheduled to take place on December 8.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT