Romania's Central Election Bureau says it will recount all ballots cast in the first round of the presidential election by December 1, following an order on November 28 by the Constitutional Court.
Calin Georgescu, the pro-Russian far-right independent candidate scored a surprise victory in the first round of the election on November 24, garnering nearly 23 percent of the vote.
Georgescu is set to face off against center-right Elena Lasconi, a staunch Euro-Atlanticist, in the December 8 runoff after both pushed ahead of favored leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
An official from Lasconi's Save Romania Union party said the Central Election Bureau had rejected a request by the party to film the recounting of the ballots.
Without the backing of a party, Georgescu's campaign relied heavily on the social media platform TikTok, where his account had 1.6 million likes and where he posted videos of himself attending church, doing judo, running on a track, and speaking on podcasts.
Separately, Romania's Supreme Defense Council said after the court ruling that it had found evidence suggesting that "cyberattacks" had been used to influence the outcome of the election. Without naming Georgescu, the council also charged that TikTok had "given preferential treatment" to a particular candidate.
Georgescu alleged that state institutions were attempting to deny the will of the people.
Meanwhile, around 2,000 protesters rallied in Bucharest for the fourth consecutive day against Georgescu on November 28, carrying a banner telling Russian President Vladimir Putin to "get off Romania."
Romania's president has significant decision-making powers, including on matters of national security and foreign policy.
Elected for a five-year term, the president can also reject party nominees for prime minister and government nominees for judicial appointments.
