Romanian court rejects defeated hard-right candidate’s challenge to election result
By STEPHEN McGRATH
Associated Press
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A top Romanian court on Thursday rejected as unfounded a request to annul the presidential election by the hard-right candidate who decisively lost the race to his pro-European Union opponent on Sunday.
After deliberations on Thursday, Romania’s Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the annulment request, filed on Tuesday by George Simion, in which he alleged that foreign interference and coordinated manipulation affected the vote. The court said its decision is final.
Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians had conceded defeat after losing in the runoff to Nicusor Dan, the Bucharest mayor who obtained 53.6% of the vote, a margin of more than 829,000 votes.
After the court announced its decision, Simion said in a post on Facebook that the Court “has continued the coup!”
“We have no choice but to fight!,” his post read. “I call on you to stand with me, today and in the coming weeks!”
Sunday’s tense vote was held months after the same court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu led the first round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.
In his request to annul the election, Simion claimed he had “irrefutable evidence” that France, Moldova and “other actors” meddled in the ballot, but did not present any evidence. He also alleged that “deceased people” had participated in the vote, and that he request it be canceled on the same grounds as the court’s decision last year.
Simion capitalized on the furor over last year’s annulment and, after coming fourth in the canceled race, allied with Georgescu, who was banned in March from running in the election redo. In the first-round vote on May 4 in the rerun, Simion won a landslide in a field of 11 candidates to enter the runoff.
Hours after voting opened on Friday for Romanians abroad, Simion accused the government of neighboring Moldova of election fraud, which both Moldovan and Romanian authorities rejected.
In comment to The Associated Press on Sunday, he reiterated claims that people were being illegally transported to voting stations in Moldova, allegedly affecting 80,000 votes.
More than half a million Moldovans hold Romanian citizenship, and about 158,000 people voted at polling stations set up in Moldova in the second round. Many more dual citizens would also have cast ballots in other countries.
