Romania Voids Election Results Over Russian Interference

A top Romanian court on Friday annulled the first round of the country's presidential election, days after allegations that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round. The Constitutional Court's unprecedented decision—which is final—came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia ran a sprawling campaign comprising thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram, the AP reports.

Despite being a huge outsider who declared zero campaign spending, Georgescu emerged as the frontrunner on Nov. 24. The BBC describes him as "an almost unknown far-right NATO-sceptic who has previously praised Vladimir Putin." Georgescu, who mainly campaigned on TikTok, was due to face pro-European Union centrist Elena Lasconi of the Save Romania Union party in a runoff on Sunday. A new date will now be set to rerun the first round. The same court last week ordered a recount of the first-round votes.