Romania to recount votes as TikTok accused of favoring candidate

Romania’s top court ordered a recount after a little-known ultranationalist candidate scored a surprise victory in Sunday’s presidential election, as a security panel said the contest was affected by a cyber operation aimed at influencing the outcome.

Romania’s Constitutional Court acted Thursday on a complaint by one of the losing candidates who cited irregularities in some precincts. Later, the nation’s Supreme Defense Council said an analysis showed that one candidate benefited from “massive exposure and preferential treatment” on social media platform TikTok. That breached Romanian electoral law, the panel said.

Calin Georgescu, a fringe independent who has questioned Romania’s membership in NATO and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, emerged from obscurity to win Sunday’s contest. The victory stunned the country’s political class, with top officials pointing the finger at the Kremlin.

Georgescu’s campaign was buoyed by an outsize following on TikTok, propelling him to first place after he’d been trailing in single digits only a week before the Nov. 24 contest. The result upended Romanian politics as voters prepare for a parliamentary election on Sunday. They’ll vote again in a presidential runoff on Dec. 8.

TikTok said in a statement it “has undertaken exhaustive steps to ensure platform integrity before, during, and after elections.” The social media platform has found no evidence of a covert influence operation or evidence of foreign influence in the last several week of the campaign, it added.

The court decision threw more uncertainty into the mix. Although Georgescu’s lead appeared irreversible, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu was eliminated from the race after he lost to opposition leader Elena Lasconi by fewer than 3,000 votes, raising the possibility that the margin could close.

The court said it expects the recount to be finished by Friday at 2 pm in Bucharest, a timetable challenged by Romania’s electoral authority, meaning further delays could come ahead of the next election.

While Ciolacu said he won’t comment on any court decision, Lasconi warned the court is playing with national security and asked the electoral commission to handle the vote recount with care.

The defense council, which consists of senior government and intelligence officials, explicitly pointed the finger at Russia, saying Romanian authorities registered increased interest from Moscow to influence public opinions and social cohesion. It accused TikTok of failing to label the candidate’s videos as election material as required by Romanian law.

“This preferential treatment was amplified by TikTok’s failure to respect the electoral bureau’s rules, and contrary to what they communicated, the Chinese company didn’t respect the electoral law and impacted the electoral process,” the council said in the statement.

It urged prosecutors and the other institutions to “urgently” take the necessary measures to clarify all these aspects.

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With assistance from Gian Volpicelli.