Romania’s top court insists on banning far-right Georgeku’s presidential bid
Bucharest, Romania (AP) – Romania’s top court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from far-right politician Calin Georgescu to lift an ban on his candidate in the presidential reenactment. He won the first round of last year’s game, and then the same court abolished the election.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling in the capital Bucharest was unanimous, two days after the Central Election Bureau rejected Georgescu’s May election.
It is unclear what justified the court’s ruling on Tuesday, and it was final.
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Hundreds of Georgescu supporters gathered near the courtroom, many waving Romanian flags in response to the “thief!”.
The bureau cites last year’s ruling from the Constitutional Court in Sunday’s ruling, which cancels the election after allegations of violations of the election, and Russia has launched a coordinated online campaign to promote Georgescu, Georgescu as the Independence Party. The decision to cancel the election was made two days before the runoff on December 8.
Georgescu condemned his ban on Sunday that “strikes directly to the heart of global democracy” and said: “Europe is now a dictatorship and Romania is tyranny!”
A court ruling on Tuesday could infuriate tensions among EU and NATO members, which have been plagued by a protracted political crisis as the election was cancelled last year.
The first round of the replay is scheduled to take place on May 4. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, runoff will take place on May 18.
