Romania’s constitutional court has annulled the result of the first round of voting in the presidential election just days before the second round was due to take place.
It means the process will be restarted from scratch, with the government due to decide a date for a new vote.
The first round was won by Calin Georgescu, an almost unknown far-right Nato-sceptic who has previously praised Vladimir Putin.
The court’s decision comes after intelligence documents were declassified, suggesting Georgescu benefitted from a mass influence operation – conducted from abroad – to interfere with the result of the vote.
Following the decision, Georgescu told his supporters to be patient and said he would “go forward through the voting process”, implying that he would try to run again for president.
“Lies hurry and truth is always patient,” he said, speaking by phone to a Romanian TV channel.
Asked whether his lawyers would challenge the intelligence documents, he replied: “It’s all taken out of context. If they say it’s water, then it’s wine.”
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.
Lasconi condemned the court’s ruling as “illegal” and “immoral”, saying “today is the moment when the Romanian state has trampled on democracy”.
“Whether we like it or not, from a legal and legitimate point of view, nine million Romanian citizens, both in the country and in the diaspora, have expressed their preference for a certain candidate. We cannot ignore their will!” she said.
She had been hoping to win the second round run-off on Sunday, which has now been cancelled.
The Constitutional Court also rejected claims filed by two of the losing candidates who accused Georgescu of illegal campaign financing.
This week, Georgescu denied to the BBC that he was Moscow’s man.
He claimed the political establishment could not cope with his success and was trying to block him.
The country is now in totally new territory, politically. And no-one is quite sure what comes next.
