November 29, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 29.11.2024, 19:42
Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court of Romania said on Friday that it postponed for 2nd December debating a request from one of the presidential candidates to cancel the results of the first round of the presidential elections. The court is waiting for the completion of the vote recount. On Thursday, the Constitutional Court requested a recount of all ballots cast in the first round, and the process is under way. The independent candidate who won the first round, Călin Georgescu, considered almost unanimously to be a pro-Russian extremist, criticised the Court’s decision and accused the ruling parties, namely the National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party of using state institutions for their own gain. Elena Lasconi, the leader of the Save Romania Union, who ranked second in the first round, also accused the Constitutional Court of playing with national security. The Prime Minister and social-democratic leader Marcel Ciolacu, ranked third after the first round, said he did not want to comment on the decision of the Constitutional Court. The interim president of the National Liberal Party, however, Ilie Bolojan, says the Court’s decision is causing tension in society, generating uncertainty and undermining trust in the state institutions. The election campaign for the second round of the presidential elections was due to get under way on 29th November, ahead of the ballot on the 8th December.
Elections. More than 18 million Romanian voters are expected at the ballots on Sunday, on National Day to elect their national Parliament, made up of 300 deputies and 166 senators. More than 8,000 candidates from 31 different political parties and alliances and 19 ethnic minorities are running in these elections. Abroad, voting is held over the course of two days, on both Saturday and Sunday, in the record 950 polling stations set up abroad. According to the Permanent Electoral Authority, almost 7,000 people have registered for postal voting in Sunday’s elections.
Defence council. The Country’s Supreme Defence Council was informed of cyber-attacks aimed at interfering with the election process in the first round of the presidential elections in Romania, held on November 24. According to the Council, hostile state and non-state players, especially Russia, have shown a growing interest in influencing the public agenda in Romania and disrupting the social cohesion. The accusations that Russia interfered in the presidential elections in Romania are unfounded, said Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, quoted by Reuters. He said Russia is not in the habit of interfering in elections in other countries, particularly in Romania, nor does it intend to do so now. In another development, the Supreme Defence Council concluded that one of the presidential candidates, namely Călin Georgescu, who is pro-Russian, anti-NATO and anti-EU, may have benefited from massive exposure, due to preferential treatment from the social media platform TikTok. By not complying with Romanian electoral legislation, TikTok significantly increased Georgescu’s visibility compared with the other candidates, who were recognised as such by algorithms and whose messages were filtered.
National Day. On Saturday, the general rehearsal for the military parade dedicated to Romania’s National Day, December 1, takes place in Bucharest. About 2,500 soldiers and specialists from the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunications Service, the Penitentiary Administration and the Romanian Customs Authority, with about 190 pieces of technical equipment and 45 aircraft, will participate in Sunday’s parade. They will be joined by about 240 foreign soldiers from allied and partner countries.
