Court rejects request to annul presidential elections

The Romanian Constitutional Court today rejected, as unfounded, a request to annul the presidential election made by the far-right candidate who lost the election on Sunday to his pro-European Union (EU) opponent.

Romania's Constitutional Court unanimously rejected a request to annul the election filed on Tuesday by George Simion, in which he alleged that foreign interference and coordinated manipulation affected the vote.

Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for Romanian Unity party, conceded defeat after losing in the second round to Nicusor Dan, the Bucharest mayor, who won 53.6 percent of the vote, with a margin of more than 829,000 votes.

Romanians voted on Sunday in the second round of the presidential election to choose between a nationalist, George Simion, an admirer of US President Donald Trump who advocates ending support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and a pro-European centrist, Nicusor Dan.

This election was a repeat of the vote held on 24 November, but which was annulled by the Constitutional Court on suspicion of Russian interference in favour of the previous far-right candidate, the pro-Russian Calin Georgescu, who was critical of the European Union (EU) and NATO.