On Monday, December 2, Romania’s Constitutional Court confirmed the results of the first round of the presidential elections, declaring the outcome valid. Călin Georgescu, who achieved a surprising victory, will move on to the second round alongside Elena Lasconi.
The court rejected the complaints of candidate Cristian Terheș, who demanded the annulment of the results citing “improper campaigning” within the diaspora for Lasconi. The Central Electoral Commission had previously submitted recount data to the court, excluding 640,000 diaspora votes.
The court stated that diaspora votes were not formally contested, making their recount unnecessary. “Even if minor discrepancies between candidates were found, unless they resulted from fraud capable of altering the outcome, they are considered negligible counting errors and do not affect the determination of results,” the court ruled.
The second round of the presidential elections will take place on December 8, featuring Călin Georgescu and Elena Lasconi as the finalists.
